


Blaine Anderson-Stark - II

by TheDumbestAvenger



Series: Blaine Anderson-Stark [2]
Category: Glee, Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Blaine Anderson is Tony Stark's Son, Canon Compliant, Dalton Blaine Anderson/Kurt Hummel, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt Blaine Anderson, Hurt/Comfort, I'm Bad At Tagging, Multi, Parent Tony Stark, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-07-13
Packaged: 2019-11-14 15:28:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 22,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18055130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDumbestAvenger/pseuds/TheDumbestAvenger
Summary: After the fight with Stane, Blaine and Tony thought life would be different, more relaxing. But life has other ideas and isn't cutting them any slack.





	1. What Comes Next

**Author's Note:**

> This is part two of the Blaine Anderson Stark series, I'm sure there's a link around here somewhere.  
> 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys are getting this Chapter now as proof I'm still working on this, I've written up to Chapter 4 but don't expect more all that soon, this one will have to tide you over for a while! Hope you enjoy it and feel free to make suggestions if you have any!

Blaine cowered on the ground as hit after hit collided with him, the crowbar didn’t stop and each blow sent pain spiking through him. It morphed into a giant metal figure as Blaine rolled to the side, barely avoiding a deadly strike, he was in the middle of a busy road, cars crashed around him in a fiery blaze. Bodies littered the road and cars. A young girl reached for her father’s hand as he stared blankly up at the sky, eyes glassy and unseeing, his last breath long departed from his body. The metal figure grabbed a hold of him, pinning him easily to the road below and raised a fist menacingly, Blaine screamed and shouted for his Dad to save him, wildly twisting and turning to escape the hold. He looked around trying to find something to save him, he only found Pepper’s eyes, the same unseeing stare as the girl’s father. Next Blaine’s eyes met Tony’s, he lay trapped, bleeding out from a hole in his abdomen as he tried to push fallen metal off himself. His eyes pleading with Blaine to save him, Blaine watched as the colour drained from his face, his continually weakened pushes slow to nothing and the light fade from his eyes. Blaine stared wide eyed as the metal fist hurtled down with immense speed sure to crush him.

Blaine darted awake, sweat beading on his face and short, shallow breaths involuntarily escaping him. He tried to force himself to take deep breaths and calm his racing heart. It didn’t work. The same images had been haunting his dreams for the few days since the press conference. As reality began to take over from the nightmare of before Blaine’s mind raced back to the memory of the hospital and what Dr Lynch had said.

_“I’ve just got back the results of some tests we had to run. Everything we tested for was normal but… you’ve got severe palladium poisoning. It’s hard to say how quickly it’s progressing given your increased metabolism but if it were anyone else they wouldn’t have long...”_

“Blaine?” Tony’s voice interrupted Blaine’s racing mind, causing him to let out a small yelp in surprise.

“Dad? Why are you here? What time is it?” Blaine stammered.

“Blaine, you were screaming, shouting for me to save you.” He sat gently at the end of Blaine’s bed, “What’s going on.”

“Bad dream I guess.”

Tony avoided his usual sarcastic comment, fear for his son taking over instead. “Was it about Obadiah.”

Blaine chose to ignore the question, not wanting to worry Tony, and let out a yawn as he pulled the duvet closer.

“C’mon Blaine, talk to me.”

“I’m tired, Dad.”

“This is the most you’ve sleep in weeks, we both know you don’t have to sleep as long as the rest of us. I want to help.” He rested a hand on Blaine’s shoulder and squeezed gently.

“Dad, please.”

Tony nodded, quietly standing and leaving the room, casting a glance back at his haunted son as he pulled the door shut, not wanting to even picture the images invading his sleep.

Blaine lay with closed eyes as Tony slowly left, he waited until his footsteps had disappeared down the hallway towards his own room before he sat up in bed, knowing full well he was not sleeping again tonight. He pulled his legs close to his chest, bringing the duvet with them and sinking down into his own embrace, too scared to sleep and too exhausted to leave.

 

* * *

 

Blaine stumbled sleepily downstairs into the kitchen to find Tony cooking pancakes. Cooking was a loose term for the mess Tony was attempting to amend but nevertheless Blaine still appreciated the gesture. He smiled when Tony noticed him and hopped up onto the edge of a counter watching Tony fumble with the pancake he was attempting to flip.

Tony handed Blaine a pile of pancakes, leaning against the counter and tucking into his own plate. They ate mostly in silence, neither knowing whether they should mention last night, eventually Blaine decided they couldn’t ignore it any longer.

“I’m sorry about last night, it was nothing and I didn’t want to freak you out.” Blaine spoke to his nearly empty plate.

“No, I get it.” Tony paused, weighing up what to say, “You know I’m here for you though, right?”

“Of course I do.” Blaine pulled Tony into a brief one armed hug. “Is Pepper still mad at you? And has Agent Coulson called?”

“I’ve been ignoring Coulson’s calls, and yes, Pepper still thinks ‘I am Iron Man’ was a crazy mistake.” Tony sighed.

“I for one think it was crazy cool, sure maybe you shouldn’t have but think about the possibilities of this tech! The things we can do with it are insane! We could revolutionise clean energy!” Blaine raved.

“I’ve had an idea.” Blaine looked at Tony quizicaly, “I can finally find the monsters who hurt you.”

Blaine felt his heart skip a beat and barely managed to suppress a shiver as the images that haunted his dreams pushed their way to the forefront of his mind again. “I’ve told you before Dad, I don’t remember much from that night.”

“What do you remember, I know it can’t be great to think about but I need to know Blaine.” The fire behind Tony’s eyes told Blaine why.

“There’s bits and pieces of that morning, and I’ve got pictures of me and Joe at the dance together which I remember happening but the rest of the day is almost completely missing.” Blaine took a deep breath before he continued. “There’s three figures, shadows really. Huge and looming over me on the ground but I think that’s less a memory and more creations of a confused mind. The only thing I really remember is-” Blaine cut himself off having never spoken about the attack in this detail before. Tony looked close to tears, the fire had been replaced by sadness, he nodded for Blaine to continue. “I have this image ingrained in my mind, I’m curled up on the ground trying to protect my head but I’m looking up and one of the three is standing over me, too dark to see his face, and swinging a crowbar down towards my head.” A tear slipped down Blaine’s cheek and he wiped it away quickly.

“I had no idea...” Tony stammered, trying to refrain from crying himself. He didn’t know what to say, sure that nothing he could do would fix this. He put down his plate and hugged Blaine, pulling him off the counter as he returned the hug tightly. “I’ve got you.” He whispered.

Blaine was the one who pulled away having seen the time on the oven clock, “I’m gonna be late if I don’t get my stuff and head off soon. I want to see Mum before school starts she starts her new job today.” He searched the house for his bag and school work he’d been doing since the fight against Obadiah, said goodbye to Tony and Rhodes, who had come round to check on how they were doing before heading to Lima.

Blaine pushed open the door of a small bookshop. “Hey Mum!” He greeted cheerily.

“Blaine! I didn’t think you’d be round until after school.”

“Nah, I came specially to surprise you.” He pulled out a small box grinning, “I got you something.”

Pam unwrapped the box and opened it, pulling out a small, heart shaped necklace with _Pam, Coop & Blaine _engraved on the back. She hugged Blaine then handed the necklace to him to fasten for her.

“Oh Blaine I love it, thank you!”

“No problem.” He laughed, “I need to get going though, see you when you get back from your holiday.”

As he arrived at Dalton the school ground was full of chatter about Iron Man and The Flash, Blaine had to hide his smile when he heard someone say The Flash was way cooler than Iron Man. He turned to see who it was and found Nick and Jeff, also Warblers who started with Blaine, and joined them.

“Don’t forget that Tony built the suit himself.”

“But is that cooler than actual superpowers?” Nick questioned.

“Anyway you’re biased.” Jeff countered, “You work for him, hell you’ve probably seen his suit.”

“Would you believe me if I said I helped build it?” Blaine laughed.

“Yeah right, in your dreams.”

“Wait do you know who The Flash is?” Nick asked.

“It’s possible.” Blaine smirked and walked off leaving Nick and Jeff wondering what the truth was. Blaine headed to his dorm to drop off his bag. The second he opened the door Wes had pulled him into a hug. “Thank God you’re okay!”

“Wes!” Blaine laughed, “I called you to let you know that everything was okay.” Blaine threw his bag down on his bed and sat down heavily.

“Yeah, you said you’d just got out of hospital then didn’t come to school the next day.”

“Sorry about that, I had some stuff to sort out.”

Wes laughed, “That sounds like the understatement of the year.”

The loud ring of the school bell interrupted their conversation, Blaine pulled all his unneeded books from his bag as Wes picked up his own and they headed down to class together. The insanity of the last week falling to the back of Blaine’s mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you! Like I said it'll be a while before updates but they are coming!!


	2. Poison

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blaine heads to Lima and receives much more than he bargained for, untold secrets threaten to tear father and son apart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2!! It's slow going writing this one, currently on Chapter 6. I'll try to post chapters every Friday. (Saturday cause I'll forget) Have fun reading and thank you so much!

_ ‘Tony Stark, head of Stark Industries and self proclaimed ‘Superhero’ ‘Iron Man’, has relinquished his position as CEO of the industry titan and passed it onto his longtime assistant Pepper Potts. Stark has yet to comment on why the shock decision was made.' _

Blaine pulled Wes’ phone from his hand to reread the headline Wes has read aloud. 

“What’s he thinking, that’s crazy! Why would he give up the company?” Jeff questioned.

“Well, you could say his priorities have, err…” Blaine looked for the right words, “Shifted slightly. Anyway, he’s still a shareholder and on the board of directors it’s not like he’s given up the company, just passed the actual leadership to someone who can use it better.” Blaine defended. In reality two words were rattling around his head,  _ palladium poisoning _ , he couldn’t help but think that it must be bad if Tony had given Pepper the CEO position.

During the last week Blaine had spent at Dalton he’d almost forgotten that his world had changed to dramatically. His nights were still plagued with nightmares but Blaine had taken to sneaking out of the dorm after Wes had fallen asleep and sleep in his Mum’s house while her and Brice were on holiday. The recent CEO news brought Blaine crashing back to the reality of his secret life. 

At that moment Blaine’s phone chimed with the sound of the alarm he implemented to warn him when there was trouble in Lima. He checked what was going on and excused himself from the lunch table to grab his suit and run to Lima.

He arrived at the scene, a multistory building had smoke billowing out from smashed windows, clear signs of an explosion, and fire had engulfed much of the outside, presumably the inside had fared no better. Blaine had arrived before the fire service but distant sirens told him they weren’t far away.

“Is anyone still inside the building?” Blaine shouted to the crowd gathered outside.

“I saw a man on the fifth floor, I don’t think he evacuated when the alarm rang!” Replied a shaken up woman.

“Okay, I’ll go find him. In the meantime everyone needs to back up.” Blaine called and the crowd responded, “Oh and clear the road for the fire engines, they’ll need clear access!”

Blaine ran into the building, searching every smoke filled, fire damaged room for trapped citizens but didn’t find anybody until he hit the fifth floor. A tall man stood in the centre of a large room, the fire licking at the corners but slowly and surely advancing on the man. He didn’t move when Blaine arrived so he held out a hand and beckoned. “Come on, I’ve gotta get you out of here.”

“Hello, Flash.” The man spoke, his voice carried a power that caused Blaine to pause. “I’ve got something I need to talk to you about first.”

Blaine was immediately on guard, he scanned the room first, not seeing and signs of a trap, then the figure in front of him. He wore all back, most notably he had an eye patch covering his left eye and he towered over Blaine.

“I’m Nick Fury, Director of the Strategic Homeland-”

“SHIELD? I’ve heard about your work.” Blaine said as an attempt to speed up the conversation.   


“Yes, and don’t worry, my Agents cleared out the building during the alarm. I need to talk to you about a plan we have, since Stark’s ‘I am Iron Man’ speech we’ve had to speed things up considerably.” He was clearly annoyed at Tony’s speech, probably since he’d specifically been given a cover up story by Coulson, Blaine thought. “You and Stark, you’ve become part of a bigger universe and you just haven’t seen it yet.”

“Director Fury as much as I’d love to stay, this building is on fire.” Blaine coughed as he inhaled smoke from the encroaching fire and the building let out a loud, echoing creak. 

Fury ignored Blaine’s interruption. “I want to introduce you to the Avengers Initiative. We want to bring together a group of extraordinary people so that when the world is threatened, we have protectors.” Blaine didn’t reply, too shocked to form a sentence, Fury continued. “We need you, I’ve seen what you can do and we need your talents on our team. I may not know anything about who you are under the mask, but there’s one thing that’s clear… you want to save people, to save everyone from the dangers of this world. If you work with us you can do just that.” Fury handed Blaine a burner phone which he accepted. “Keep this on you, we’ll be in touch if and when we need your help.”

Before Blaine could reply another creak, followed by the sound of crashing, filled the building, Blaine grabbed Nick and ran them both outside as the building collapsed in on itself. Shocked firefighters checked with Blaine that the building was empty, he turned to speak to Fury but he had already disappeared into the crowd. Blaine caught sight of someone’s phone.

“Wait! That’s the time?” He coughed again, “Oh I’m already so late.” He ran back to Dalton without another word.

He arrived in a fit of coughs, the extended time he’d spent in the burning was taking its toll, and hurried to his lesson. Trying to quietly slip into his seat without being noticed but the class was working in silence.

“Nice of you to join us, Blaine.” Mr Finch said as Blaine sat, he picked up a booklet and handed it to Blaine. “Pop Quiz.” He stated simply.

Nick looked at Blaine questioningly before returning to his test, Blaine set about trying to finish the quiz before the bell rang. However his mind kept wandering back to his strange meeting with Fury, it sounded like he’d met with Tony already too, and the palladium poisoning that was slowly killing him. 

He finished up the last question as the bell rang, he handed his test over to Mr Finch before hurrying to Warbler practice.

“Okay everyone, as we all know, Sectionals is next week so we need to be in top condition.” David began when the last members arrived. They ran through their set list a few times, perfecting harmonies and choreography before disbanding for the weekend. Blaine said a quick goodbye to them and headed home to New York.

* * *

After they’d finished eating their evening meal Blaine finally worked up the courage to talk to Tony, choosing the easier option first. “Hey, Dad. Have you had any unexpected visitors recently? The one eyed, trench coat wearing type?”

Tony sighed, “Yeah I have, and I told Fury not to find you.”

“What, why?”

“To join ‘The Avengers Initiative’? It sounds dangerous, Blaine. I’ve put you through enough danger already, you’re too young to have this kind of pressure.”

“It sounds like exactly the thing I want! I can really help people Dad, we can, together! Anyway I’m nearly sixteen! I can make this decision for myself!”

“No Blaine, not this one! I’m just trying to keep you safe-”

“Safe! What about the palladium poisoning? I know why you made Pepper CEO and I know it’s killing both of us!” Blaine shouted. Tony froze, totally taken aback by Blaine’s uncharacteristic outburst, Blaine took a breath. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring it up like that.”

“It’s on me, I should have mentioned it weeks ago. I was just happy to have you back.”

“What’s the plan then, how do we fix this.”

“That’s where the problem in the equation is, there is no solution.”

“If there’s no solution, we need to change the equation.”

“All my research is in the lab, I’ve not found anything to replace the palladium core of the reactors. Even worse, the more you use your speed or my suit the quicker the poisoning will take hold.” Tony held his head in his hands. “At the moment my plan is to make sure everything is in order when… well, y’know.”

“No, Dad. No. We’re not giving up, there’s got to be something we just need the time to find out what.”

Tony gestured to a clear bottle next to him containing black liquid, “I came up with this formula yesterday, it should counteract the effects of the palladium to a certain extent. It’s not a cure but it is a treatment. For now at least.” He handed the bottle to Blaine. “Tastes like ass though.” Blaine almost spat out the mouthful he took as he tried not to laugh.

“Urgh, you’re not wrong. Let’s get to work.”

“Blaine I don’t thi-”   
  
“Dad we’re fixing this, we always fix the problem. We have to, I don’t know what else there is.”


	3. William McKinley High School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blaine gets an unexpected text that leads him to a familiar face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said I'd forget on Friday...  
> Anyway, here's the next chapter, enjoy!!

“I don’t know what you two have been doing for the last forty eight straight hours but it’s time you stopped.” Pepper stormed into the lab where the boys had been stationed since Friday, anger rolling off her. “Stark Expo opens tonight. Tonight! And what have you done? Nothing. No, you’ve been in here doing I don’t even know what because you won’t tell me!”

Tony watched her rant wide eyed, when she paused he cast a worried look at Blaine before meeting Pepper’s angry eyes. He opened his mouth to speak but Blaine jumped in first. 

“Auntie Pepper, I’m so sorry. I completely lost track of time and kept Dad busy when he should have been helping you. I’m completely yours to help from now on.” He shot quick look at Tony.

“Wh- oh yes me too, here to help.” He stammered trying to avoid further angering Pepper. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes briefly, Tony mouthed  _ ‘thank you’  _ at Blaine before Pepper spoke again.

“Right, thank you both.” She handed both of them a clipboard with a to-do list clipped to it. “This is what still needs to be done, there’s a lot so you’ll have to work quickly and you’ve got to catch up on your internship work Blaine. Oh and Rhodey’s upstairs, he bought waffles.” She left the lab without another word.

Blaine flicked through his multiple page list wondering how he could get it all done by eight this evening. “Hey hang on, how come my list is so much longer than yours is!”

“Um let me think, superspeed maybe?” Tony replied.

“I’m fifteen.”

“You keep telling me you’re old enough to make decisions so you’re old enough to do some work.”

“Fine, but I’m having waffles first.” Blaine ran from the room to the kitchen where Rhodes was sitting at the breakfast bar. “Hey Uncle Rhodey!” Blaine said cheerily, making Rhodes jump in the process.

“Jeez Blaine.” He said holding a hand to his heart.

“Sorry.” Blaine smiled sheepishly. “I see you’ve got a list too.” He gestured to Rhodes’ clipboard with his own.

“Ha, yeah. This is the second one Pepper’s given me since Friday.” He held the waffle box out for Blaine to take one.

“Sorry about that too,” Blaine took a waffle, “That’s kinda my fault as well.”

“Is everything okay with Tony? He’s not spoken to me at all this weekend, the last time he was in the lab like this was when you were in a coma.” Rhodes’ voice was filled with concern.

“I hope you’ve not eaten all the waffles Blaine.” Tony said as he entered the room.

“I’ve left you one.” Blaine said taking another, he smiled at Rhodes quickly and said a quick goodbye as he left to get started with his list.

* * *

Blaine took a break from setting up chairs in the multiple pavilions that made up the Stark Expo, heavily sitting in one and pulled out his phone. To Blaine’s surprise he had a text from an unknown number, intrigued he read it. 

_ ‘Hey Blaine, it’s Kurt. Wes gave me your number I hope that’s okay.’  _ Blaine’s heart skipped a beat as he read on.  _ ‘Something happened, it made me want to talk to Karofsky, the guy who’s been bullying me, but I wanted to ask if you could come too. You seem to know how to deal with this better than me. - Kurt’ _

Blaine reread the text before replying.  _ ‘Hey Kurt! Hope you’re okay. Of course I’ll be there, I wouldn’t say I know what to do but we can figure it out together. Monday lunchtime?’ _

A few moments later Kurt replied.  _ ‘Sure, see you then.’  _

Blaine finished setting up the chairs with a renewed enthusiasm and then moved on to installing a mechanism to deconstruct Tony’s armour on the main stage for his grand entrance.

* * *

Blaine stood in the cheering crowd as he watched Iron Man fly down towards the stage, speakers blasting Shoot to Thrill and fireworks lighting up the night sky. Tony landed on one knee and a fist planted on the stage as the cheers grew even louder, he stood throwing his arms up as the deconstructor began to work around him, Blaine marvelling at his work. Tony played to the crowd as the song began to wind down and shouted over the cheers and chant of his name.

“Oh it’s good to be back! Did you miss me? Now, I’m not saying that from the  _ ashes _ of captivity never has a  _ greater phoenix metaphor _ ever been personified in all of history.” The crowd erupted into cheers again. “It’s not about me, it’s not about you. It’s not even about us. It’s about legacy and what we choose to leave behind for future generations.” Tony didn’t quite meet Blaine’s eyes. “And that’s why over the next year the brightest minds will pull together their research to leave behind a brighter future, it’s not about us! What I’m saying, if I’m saying anything, is welcome back to the Stark Expo!” The crowd whooped and a recording of Howard Stark, Tony’s Dad, played on the giant screen behind the stage, Tony quickly walked off stage and Blaine went to meet him.

“You did great.” Blaine praised as he joined Tony.

“What did you expect.” Tony smiled, Blaine noticed the device in his hand.

“What percent.” He asked solemnly.

“Nineteen percent toxicity.” Tony read as Blaine checked his too.

“Ten percent.”

“Yours is increasing much faster than mine, I hope your power would slow it down not speed it up.” Tony sighed. “I’ll keep working on a solution while you’re back at school. That’s my cue, I’ve gotta get back out there.”

Blaine quickly hugged Tony before he went back out into the crowd to watch the rest of the show.

* * *

Blaine willed the clock to move faster. Not that he wanted to face Kurt’s bully, but he was desperate to see Kurt again, especially after their last meeting was cut short. The final lesson before lunch dragged on for what seemed like hours, Blaine planned ideas of what he should say.  _ At least it can’t be as bad as last time I stood up to a bully  _ he thought.

Finally the bell rang out and Blaine quickly made his way to William McKinley High School, Kurt’s school, and met him out front. Kurt hugged him before shakily explaining what’s been going on as they walked through the school.

“I started to tell you about Karofsky, he’s just the worst. It’s like it’s his life’s goal to make my life a misery.”

“I had one of them, too.”

“What happened?”

“I don’t actually know. I transfered to Dalton and never saw him again, not that that’s a bad thing.”

“It all worked itself out then” Kurt looked reassured.

“Yeah,” Blaine’s nightmares flashed through his mind, he shook them away. “This will work itself out too, Kurt.” Blaine looked Kurt in the eye as he said it.

“I’m not so sure.” Blaine raised an eyebrow questioningly. “He kissed me, the day before I text you.”

“Kurt… I’m so sorry.”

“No, it’s alright. I just need this to stop. Up here, he’ll be coming down any minute.” Kurt directed them up an outdoor staircase and Blaine followed in shocked silence. “There, that’s him.” Kurt pointed up the stairs ahead of them. Blaine looked through the crowd, trying to pick out who Kurt was pointing to. They paused on a landing and waited for him to make his way towards them and Blaine finally saw who Kurt pointed to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who do you think Blaine's seen..?  
> Thanks for reading!


	4. The Past Catches Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blaine faces a day from hell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry! I was away for a couple days so the chapters late but it's here now, thanks for reading and enjoy!

Blaine froze, superpowers long forgotten, transported to a time he wished to forget. Karofsky’s face twisted in anger and he pushed past Kurt to get to Blaine, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and pushing him against the railings.

“You!” He snarled in Blaine’s face, too quiet for anyone else to hear. “You ruined my life.”

“I- I didn’t-” Blaine stammered as fear took over. His mind raced back to the night of the Sadie Hawkins dance and the fog cleared, Blaine was staring into the face of his attacker. He could almost feel the pain of that night resonating from the scars it left on his body.

“Stop!” Kurt shouted and pulled Karofsky away from Blaine.

“Stay out of this.” Karofsky growled pushing Kurt away, he tripped up the stairs and fell hard.

“Kurt!” Blaine shouted, trying to get to him, superspeed still a distant memory.

“Not so fast.” Karofsky grabbed hold of Blaine again and started slowly pushing him back. “You should be dead, you only survived because your Daddy intervened.” They were closing in on the railing behind. “It’s a shame they rescued him from Afghanistan, although he was gone long enough for my Dad to cover everything up. I had to move school though, no one trusted me anymore. All my friends betrayed me, all because of you.”

“You brought this on yourself.” Blaine’s voice wavered in fear as his back hit the railing.

“If it wasn’t for your family mine would be on top and you know it, and I wouldn’t live in the shadows like you do. You ruined my life!” He was shouting by the end. Kurt was pushing himself back to his feet but he was too late, Karofsky pushed Blaine over the railing. He scrambled to grab hold of it as he fell but it slipped from his grip. Blaine fell down the flight they had climbed, hitting the ground, landing on his arm with a crunch, Kurt ran down the stairs.

“Blaine!” He knelt by Blaine’s side.

“Kurt, get back.” Blaine said as he pushed himself to his feet having seen Karofsky stalking down the stairs towards them. Blaine stood between Karofsky and Kurt.

“I don’t care about him anyway, making you pay is enough.” Karofsky closed the distance and swung a punch at Blaine, he dodged, preparing himself for more. Students and teachers rushed over having seen Blaine fall.

A loud clang rang out across the school ground, one Blaine would always recognise.

“Stand down.” Came Tony’s voice through the Iron Man suit, he stood next to Blaine, one hand raised against Karofsky. Confused teachers quickly pulled Karofsky away and Tony opened the faceplate and turned his attention to Blaine. “Are you okay?”

“Actually no, I’m not.” Blaine’s world was spinning, the effects of hitting the ground catching up with him. He put a shaky hand to the back of his head and it came back blood covered.

“I’ve got to get you to hospital.” Tony silenced Blaine as he tried to protest. “No arguments.”

* * *

After Blaine had been treated, he and Tony were waiting in a private room for the doctor to bring the discharge papers for them to leave. Tony seemed distracted while Blaine was being treated, often leaving the room and his mind seemed to be elsewhere.

“What’s going on?” Blaine asked, Tony faked confusion. “There’s clearly something bothering you.”

“Blaine, that kid you were fighting with,” Even at the beginning of Tony’s question Blaine felt fear creeping up on him, “That was Hammer’s kid, right? Justin Hammer?”

“Yeah, Dad look-”

“Why, Blaine? What were you doing, how was he winning?”

“He’s been bullying a friend of mine, Kurt, I went to try and help him out but… He- he was the one who attacked me at the Sadie Hawkins dance.”

Tony stared in shock silence, anger slowly building behind his eyes.

Blaine continued, “He said that Justin covered everything up but I guess the people at school knew it was him so he moved to William McKinley and changed his name to David Karofsky. He thinks that it was all my fault, he wouldn’t even own up to what he did!”

“It’s not your fault Blaine, it’s Justin’s. If he wasn’t so fixated on having everything that I do his kid would never have been at your school.” Tony paused as a large number of doctors rushed past the room, eyes widening as he watched. 

“What is it?” Blaine asked again. 

“Being in hospitals, it reminds me-” Tony started.

“You’ve been fine in hospitals since that night, what’s really going on Dad? Why were you already in Lima?”

“Alright, just hear me out before you say anything, okay? Let me tell you everything first.” Tony spoke seriously, Blaine nodded and waited for Tony to continue. “There was an attack in Lima today, a Metahuman, y’know someone with powers from the particle accelerator. Your Mum’s bookshop was right in the middle of it.”

“Thank God she doesn’t get back till next week.”

“That’s the thing…” Blaine stiffened, “She and Brice had a massive argument while they were away and she came back yesterday. She was badly hurt  _ but _ the Doctors said she’s stable and will recover in a few weeks. That’s why I was here, she called during the attack and I came down but I was too late.”

Blaine was breathing heavily, trying to digest what Tony was saying, “She’s going to be okay though?”

“The Doctors said it would take a few weeks but she’ll get better.”

“This is all my fault, if I hadn’t been so selfish I would have been there to stop this.” Blaine had tears in his eyes as he spoke.

“Blaine-”

“Can I go see her?”

“Yeah, yeah of course, I’ll take you.”

Tony led Blaine out of the room and downstairs to Pam’s room, keeping his head down to avoid people noticing him. They walked down a long corridor but before they reached their destination an alarm sounded from one of the rooms, doctors rushed into one at the far end of hallway. Tony filled with dread, “Blaine wait here.” He said as he ran down the corridor and into the room himself.

Blaine felt disconnected from the world, there was only one reason why Tony would run into that room.

“Nonono, why are you stopping! You can’t!” Tony’s voice filled the room, “There’s a kid out there about to lose his Mum! He’s been through too much pain in his life and he can’t take this too.” Tony noticed all the doctors were looking over his shoulder, looking at the boy who somehow seemed even smaller as he stared wide eyed, eyes flicking between the flat lining monitor, his Mother’s body, and Tony’s tear stricken face. Slowly he backed from the room, Tony trying to reach him before Blaine ran but missing by a second.

“Time of death 13:02.” One of the Doctors spoke quietly, “Mr Stark, truly I am sorry. She arrested five times before you returned, each time took longer to get her back. She must have catastrophic injuries that didn’t present themselves until it was too late.” He reached out to put a hand on Tony’s arm to comfort him but Tony pulled away sharply, barely containing his emotions.

“I need some space…” He muttered and turned to leave when something caught his eye. He walked over to Pam, doctors stepping away for him to stand at her side. Wrapped around her fingers was a delicate gold chain, he gently pulled it from her hand to reveal the necklace Blaine had given her and read the inscription. 

He lent in close, whispering ever so quietly, “I’ll look after them, you can trust me. Trust me and rest now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments, suggestions or scenes you'd like to see are always welcome, hope you enjoyed!


	5. Running

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How will Blaine cope...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually posted on Friday! Thanks for reading!!

Blaine ran. And ran and ran.

He didn’t care were. He didn’t know where. He didn’t know how long for.

He just knew he couldn’t stop.

His legs ached, his arms ached, his body ached. But his heart, his heart  _ hurt.  _ More than anything he’d ever felt. Blaine didn’t cry, he feared he wouldn’t stop if he let himself. He didn’t even have his suit, he stopped and laughed despite himself.  _ At least changed the soles of my shoes so they don’t burn up anymore.  _ He thought.

Blaine took in his surroundings, surprised to find himself outside his house. He pushed the door open, the familiar surroundings calmed him as though his world hadn’t just shattered and the shards lay dangerously on the ground. One wrong step by Blaine, or anyone coming towards him, would end in disaster.

Pam’s coat hung lifelessly on a peg by the door, next to Blaine’s equally empty one. Brice’s lay crumpled on the floor, as if hastily thrown to the peg in an attempt of tidiness. To Blaine’s surprise Brice’s suitcase was also hastily pushed into the corner. He reached for his phone but found his pocket empty.

“Brice?” Blaine called out walking further into the house. He caught sight of a clock in the kitchen,  _ 17:42 _ .

“Blaine? Shouldn’t you be at school?” Brice sounded worried, he turned and saw the pain in Blaine’s eyes. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“You came back looking for her?” 

“Yes, Blaine, I need to apologise. I said some terrible things and she left. I came back as quick as I could, do you know where she is?” 

Blaine remained silent.

“What’s wrong Blaine, come sit down.”

“It’s Mum. She died.”

“Wha..?” Brice was speechless.

“I’m so sorry, it’s all my fault. I should’ve-” Blaine was cut off as Brice pulled him close and hugged him tight. His tears falling on Blaine’s uniform though neither cared. Still Blaine refused to let himself cry. 

“Blaine, tell me what happened.” Brice guided Blaine to the sofa and spoke through the tears.

Blaine quickly explained everything that had happened since he left Dalton. By the end Brice was already picking his coat off the floor and preparing to go to the hospital.

“I- I can’t.” Blaine took a breath to steady himself. “I can’t go back there, not yet.”

“It’s okay, you stay here but I have to go, say goodbye. I’ll see if I can send Tony over, you shouldn’t be alone.” Brice hugged Blaine once again and hurried out the door.

Blaine couldn’t sit still, where ever he looked he saw his Mum. Memories flashed through his mind in every room he sat in, even Cooper’s bedroom.

_ “Mum, can you come in here quickly?” _ __   
__   
_ “Does it have to be in my room?” _ __   
_   
_ __ “Cooper would you just for once listen.”

_ “What’s going on sweetie?” _

_ “Err, well… I… I’m gay. I don’t want you to think anything different I’m still me-” _

_ “Honey of course you are, we know that.” _ __   
_   
_ __ “Come here” Cooper pulled him into a side hug and ruffled his hair.

_ “Coop really?” Blaine laughed with his family. _

His broken family that would never be the same again. Blaine couldn’t stay in the house any longer, he ran to Dalton and headed straight to the choir room hoping to catch the end of Warbler practice.

When he entered the room all eyes were on him, the Warblers were sitting on the floor in a circle with duvets and pillows scattered around the room with pyjamas neatly folded on top of them. Blaine cautiously walked further in, unsure if he should speak first. As he opened his mouth Wes spoke.

“Hey Blaine, you missed afternoon lessons and practice.” There was underlying concern in his voice. 

“I’m so sorry, I lost track of time.” Blaine took a seat in the circle, between Nick and David.

“Lost track of time or lost yourself staring into Kurt’s eyes.” Nick teased.

“Something like that.” Blaine stared thoroughly at the floor, Wes and David eyed him carefully. “What’s going on here?” Blaine gestured vaguely around the room.

“It’s the traditional Pre Competition Sleepover!” Jeff announced happily, throwing his arms wide and sending a cheer through the Warblers. “Sectionals are tomorrow which means we spend the night in the choir room learning each others deepest secrets. Or just having a good time, whatever floats your boat.” Jeff giggled.

The group spend a few hours chatting, playing games, and taking in the drinks the upperclassmen had supplied, responsibly of course they had a competition in the morning. Blaine was another matter, he only joined in when he was needed and the rest of the time was spent wishing he didn’t have increased metabolism and could get a little tipsy like the others.

“Woah, okay Blaine that’s enough for you.” David plucked Blaine’s drink from his hand, “Can’t lose our star player to a hangover.” He dragged Blaine over to a smaller group consisting of Wes, Nick, Jeff, and Thad. Blaine looked over his shoulder, hoping for an escape to make itself clear.

“Hey, Blaine, is that blood on your collar?” Asked a shocked Thad.

Blaine tugged his collar so he could see, “Err yeah. I should change…” He trailed off.

“I brought down your stuff, it’s over here with mine.” Wes pulled Blaine over to the corner of the choir room.”

“Thanks.”

“Blaine talk to me, what’s going on.”

“I’d rather not if that’s okay, I just need to get Sectionals out of the way before...” Blaine pulled of his blazer and tie, unbuttoned his shirt and picked up his pyjamas.

“What the hell.” Wes said a little too loud, catching the attention of the closer Warblers. Blaine turned to see what was wrong when he realised the Warblers were staring at him. He fought the urge to swear as he tugged his shirt on a quickly as possible. Too late, all the Warblers were staring wide eyed at the glowing metal circle in Blaine’s chest.

Wes closed the distance between them and spoke softly. “Blaine…”

Blaine sighed, “I should probably tell you guys something.” Blaine spoke loud enough for the whole room to hear. All the Warblers returned to their original circle, anxiously waiting to hear what Blaine had to say. He fixed his gaze on the wooden floor boards in the centre and took a deep breath.


	6. Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blaine has some truths to tell the Warblers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I saw Endgame yesterday... No spoilers of course, just want to say it's amazing!

“So, I know you all want to know why I’m a year older than my year should be, and how I got the Stark Internship. Well it’s all the same story. Before I transferred here I went to a school in Lima, when I came out as gay most people didn’t care but there were a few who made it their mission to ruin my day. Pushed me into lockers, tripped me when taking my lunch tray to a table, always had some sort of comment up their sleeves to throw my when whenever I passed by. I learned to deal with, dodge them, ignore what they had to say. But one day my school hosted a Sadie Hawkins dance to celebrate the turning on of the Starlabs Particle Accelerator, I went with a close friend of mine, Joe, we weren’t dating but just getting to know each other. At the end of the dance we went out to watch Starlabs turn it on, I lost sight of Joe and went to look for him. I found him getting beaten up by my bullies, I stepped in trying to stop them but there was no chance. They were football players with crowbars and I’m just me, I tried to save Joe and they turned on me, relentless.”

Blaine stopped, controlled his breathing and focused on not letting the tears fall before he continued. “They wanted to kill me, they only stopped when the accelerator exploded and caused that crazy thunderstorm. They ran, left me for dead, which I was before I got hit by lightning, the Doctors said it saved my life. Apparently it was in the news a lot.” A few of the Warblers nodded in recognition of the story they’d heard repeated daily on the news for weeks. “It was bad, I was in a coma, Doctors thought I was a lost cause. Mr Stark stepped in, he saved my life the same way he saved his own, with a miniaturised arc reactor and nine months later I woke up.”

There was a long silence. “I didn’t really remember anything about it until I ran into the guy who attacked me, that’s why I haven’t shared anything before. That and I didn’t want you to think less of me.”

A chorus of “Of course we wouldn’t think less!” Ran through the choir room.

“The guys who did this to you, did they get caught?” Wes asked, anger shrouding his normally cheerful tone.

“I don’t think so, his family is rich so I think he smoothed everything over somehow.”

“Well if I ever meet him he’s going to get what’s coming to him.”

“Thanks Wes.”

“Warblers it’s getting late, I think we should think about getting some sleep.” David suggested to offer Blaine some privacy. The Warblers spit off to their makeshift beds, Blaine stayed with Wes and David, Nick and Jeff heading to their nearby beds.

“Thanks David.” Blaine gave a half hearted smile, “Wait, did you hear that?”

The others shook their heads confused. Before Blaine could explain the choir room door creaked open, gaining the attention of everyone inside. Tony stood in the doorway and frantically searched the room, concern etched into his face and his hair far from it’s styled norm. When his eyes met Blaine they softened, Blaine hurried over and Tony pulled him into his arms.

“Blaine! I’m so glad you’re safe. Brice said you’d be at home, I left as soon as I could and when you weren’t there I thought I’d lost you too.” Tony rambled quietly.

“I’m here. I would have text but I’ve lost my phone somewhere. I’m sorry, I just had to get away...”

Tony finally let go of Blaine, “I found it in the hospital room, it was lighting up like crazy. I only read most of the messages.” Tony handed over the phone and looked around the room seemily noticing the rest of the Warblers for the first time. He turned his vision to Blaine, silently letting him know that this was his decision to make.

Blaine turned to face the room, “Guys, this is Tony Stark. My Dad.” 

The room was silent, every eye flicking between Blaine and Tony in disbelief. 

Jeff spoke up, “You know I was kidding when I said to spill your deepest secrets.” A few people laughed, Blaine smiled weakly while Tony followed suit. With the silence broken Tony turned back to Blaine and lowered his voice.

“We should go home, you need time to grieve.”

“Dad it’s sectionals tomorrow and the Warblers are counting on me to be there.”

“Okay, but home after.” Tony checked the time on his phone. “I should let you get to sleep, I’ll see you perform tomorrow. I love you Blaine.” Tony kissed Blaine’s forehead.

“Love you too Dad.” 

* * *

Blaine woke drenched in sweat, lingering images of his mother being helplessly murdered before his eyes flashed through his mind. Settling on her body lying lifelessly on the hospital bed and the hurt in Tony’s eyes,  _ this was all his fault,  _ Blaine blamed on himself. He noticed the Warblers all cautiously watching him from their beds, Wes sat next to Blaine.

“Hey Blaine, you okay?” Wes was clearly worried.

“Yeah, well I will be.”

“You were shouting…” Wes was trying to get more information but didn’t want to over step.

“Worried about sectionals.” Blaine fake laughed, Wes caught the hint.

“Speaking of, the bus leaves in an hour and we need to clear up the choir room so let's get going.” Wes spoke to the room.

Blaine gathered his stuff and took it up to his dorm room, thankful Wes didn’t follow, he threw it down on his matress and grabbed his phone. Dozens of missed calls and texts from Wes, Kurt and Tony. He read them quickly, text Tony good morning, then called Kurt.

_ “Blaine, are you okay what happened?”  _ Kurt sounded frantic

“Hey, don’t worry about me I’m good. I left my phone and only just got it back, sorry I worried you.”

_ “I’m glad, I’m sorry about what happened with Karofsky I shouldn’t have brought you into it.” _

“It’s not your fault Kurt, don’t worry. I’ll see you today won’t I? I seem to remember seeing New Directions in our sectionals list, that’s the club you’re in right?”

_ “Yeah! I hadn’t even realised. Though it might not be my club for long, I’m transferring to Dalton. After he attacked you, I just can’t stay here anymore.” _

“I’m sorry it had to end like that.” They were silent for a few moments. “When are you transferring?”  
  
_ “Well if it were up to me today, but my Dad says it’s more likely to be on Monday once the paperwork or somethings complete. It sucks that I’m leaving my friends but at least I’ll have you...” _

“Kurt, of course you do. I’ll always look out for you.” Just then there was a knock on the door. “Sorry Kurt, I’ve got to go. See you soon.”

Kurt said goodbye and hung up before Blaine opened the door, Wes came in looking a little sheepish, “I heard you talking and didn’t want to interrupt.”

“Don’t worry about it, I was talking with Kurt.”

“Oh, you didn’t have to hang up!”

“We should get going, and he’s at sectionals anyway and he’s got some good news.”

* * *

As soon as Blaine stepped out on stage he spotted Tony in the crowd. He plastered a smile to his face and took his place center stage and easily slipped into an energetic performance of Hey Soul Sister with his fellow Warblers. At the end of their setlist the auditorium was on their feet cheering louder than Blaine had ever heard. Tony was grinning up at Blaine who was returning an equally goofy grin himself, for a moment Blaine was carefree. Until it came crashing back even harder.

Soon it was the New Directions turn to perform, Blaine intently watching Kurt and cheering the loudest when they finished. All the performers gathered on the stage, anxiously awaiting the results.

“Thank you all for performing today! Drumroll please… The Winner of this year’s West Central Sectional is… Oh my! It’s a tie between the New Directions and the Dalton Academy Warblers! You’re both moving on to Regionals!”

Blaine hugged Wes and smiled when Tony fist pumped the air. He briefly met eyes across the stage with Kurt before both were pulled into their teams celebrations.

Tony made his way backstage to the Warblers green room, said a quick hello to the others, and ushered Blaine discreetly out the back of the show hall into Happy’s waiting car. The ride to the plane was silent, as was the plane ride itself. It wasn’t until they were sat in Stark Tower that it all caught up to Blaine, he couldn’t keep his feelings suppressed any longer.

“I’m never going to speak to her again.” Tears flooded Blaine’s eyes.

“Blaine..” Tony sighed.

“She’s gone.” The tears fell freely. Tony reached to hug Blaine but he flinched away. “I can’t…” Blaine half ran from the room.

“Blaine!” Tony called, halting Blaine in the doorway but he didn’t turn around. “You lost her, I know how it feels so don’t shut me out. I can’t lose you too.” Tony pleaded with Blaine not to leave. He hesitated in the doorway before running to his room alone.

“I’m sorry...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there are any scenes you'd like to see between Tony and Blaine leave a comment, I'll happily do flashback chapters!


	7. Grief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blaine halted in the doorway, eyes trained on the ground.
> 
> “That’s not true- I didn’t-“ Tony sighed, at a loss for words. “Please, don’t leave.”
> 
> “I don’t know how I can stay.”
> 
> “This is your home.”
> 
> “My home was in Lima.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a longer than normal chapter today, thanks for reading!

Tuesday

 

Tony watched as Blaine ran to his room, he’d been their, his parents were killed in a car crash and he didn’t get to say goodbye. 

“Jarvis, phone the Dalton head for me.”

“Of course Sir.”

“Hello?”

“Hi, is this Mrs Neilson?”

“Yes, and this is...?”

“Blaine’s Dad. He’s not going to be in for a few days.”

“I’m sorry, we can’t just give our students time off.”

Tony tried to explain that it was important Blaine had time away from school.

“If he’s ill you can provide us with a doctors note-”

“His mother died!” Tony said much louder than he’d meant to, eyes stinging with tears.

“Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to- Of course Blaine can have some time, I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Thanks.” Tony hung up and held his head in his hands screwing his eyes shut, trying to plan the best way to help Blaine.

 

Wednesday

 

Blaine checked his phone, multiple texts from Wes and Kurt.

_ I’m so sorry. Most of the Warblers overheard Mrs Neilson talking to your form teacher, if I can help in anyway let me know. _

Blaine left his room for the first time since arriving and poured himself a bowl of cereal in the kitchen, Tony came down not long after and silently did the same. They didn’t speak until both had finished and Blaine carefully put the bowls and spoons in the dishwasher, he took a seat on the sofa while Tony made himself a coffee.

“You want one?”

“Sure.”

Soon they were both seated in the living room, sipping on hot coffee. Tony spoke first, “When my parents died in the car crash I did everything I shouldn’t.” 

Blaine met Tony’s eyes, he’d never spoken in detail about what happened before. 

“I drank, a lot, partied every night, got high on anything I was offered. I just wanted to take the edge off, it was only when I took over the company properly that I was forced to deal with it properly.” He trailed off, “I’ve already lost my point, what I’m trying to say is don’t bottle it up, and I’m here for anything.”

“I don’t know, that first part sounds pretty good.” Blaine answered, Tony raised a shocked eyebrow. “I’m kidding.”

“Yeah, you’re not exactly one to party.” 

“Hey!” Blaine tried to defend himself.

“How many parties have to been to since you started at Dalton then. Not including the other night with your singing friends.”

“They’re called the Warblers and you know it-”

“How many?”

Blaine rolled his eyes.

Tony clicked his tongue, “Exactly.”

“There isn’t much time when you’re trying to keep a city safe and clean up your father’s mess too.” Anger welled up inside Blaine, filling him with rage as he continued. “Why does matter anyway?”

“Woah, Blaine-”

“You know what? I’m sorry ok!” Blaine jumped to his feet. “I’m sorry that I’m not like you! Sorry I don’t like your music, don’t live by your playboy lifestyle, that I’m in a dorky glee club!

“Hey, I was kidding. I didn’t mean-” Tony frantically tried to diffuse the situation.

“Cause that’s all you do, kid and joke around.” Blaine spat. “And most of all I’m sorry that I can care for something that isn’t a robot.”

Tony stood, towering over Blaine. “Take that back. You know I care about you more than anything. Blaine you have every right to be angry but not at me.”

“Why not!”

“It wasn’t my fault.”

“You were there.”

“You’re right, I was there.” Tony was shouting, “Me. But what about you? Your mum died because of y-” Tony cut himself off abruptly, his eyes softened and pleaded with Blaine’s, the pain in his son's eyes told him everything. 

“Because of me.”

“I didn’t say that.” Tony mumbled. 

“You didn’t have to.” Blaine yelled, his voice turned to barely a whisper as tears rolled slowly down his cheeks, “I already knew.” He turned and started to walk from the room. 

“Blaine!” Tony called, “Just wait. Please?”

Blaine halted in the doorway, eyes trained on the ground. 

“That’s not true- I didn’t-“ Tony sighed, at a loss for words. “Please, don’t leave.”

“I don’t know how I can stay.” 

“This is your home.”

“My home was in Lima.” Before Tony could reply Blaine sped from the room. 

 

2AM - Sunday Morning

 

Blaine spent the days watching over New York, putting a stop to any crime he came across and taking the odd selfie with fans. Most importantly he was ignoring the near constant calls from his father, sometime late early Thursday morning Tony either gave up or got the message. It was incredibly unlikely he had fallen asleep since he had an innate ability to go for days without sleep, fueling himself with coffee. It was an ability Blaine had definitely inherited and was the reason Blaine was still running around the city after hours but he couldn’t bring himself to show his face at Stark Tower again. 

“Busy night, Flash?” A police officer called out to Blaine as her partner arrested the thief Blaine had hunted down.

“Isn’t New York the city that never sleeps?”

“Ha,” She looked up the still busy street. “I suppose it is.” Blaine chuckled quietly as the officer grabbed something from the car and walked over to Blaine, “Here,” She offered Blaine a take out coffee cup, “I think you need this more than me.”

“Oh, thank you but I couldn’t.”

“C’mon, take it.” She still held out her arm.

“I’m okay, really.” They met eyes, the officer seemed to be searching Blaine’s and she slowly lowered her arm.

“You- You’re just a kid.” She stammered. Blaine didn’t reply, instead he dropped his gaze to the pavement below his feet. “Most adults don’t have that same wondrous, hopeful glimmer. But I can see sadness, no matter how hard you’re trying to hide it.”

Blaine felt he could open up to the officer despite barely knowing her, maybe that was why he felt he could. “My mum died and I was hurting. I took it out on my dad, said horrible things I can’t take back, and then I ran. Now I’m hurting more and I know he is too but I can’t go back.”

“Why not?”

“What I said- He wouldn’t want me back.”

Before the officer could speak a child’s scream pierced the air. “Daddy!” Blaine looked eyes with the officer for a brief moment before speeding towards the sound. Ahead of him was a man trying to bundle a young boy into the backseat of his car while the dad, who looked as if he had been attacked and unable to walk, struggled and called out for his son from the otherside of the road.

“Hey!” Blaine shouted, making his voice as deep and menacing as possible, the man looked up with wide eyes. Blaine pushed him across the path and into the wall behind then turned to the boy and gently helped him out of the car and checked him over for injuries. “Hey, what’s your name?”

“Sam.” Replied the boy nervously, pushing up his glasses as he spoke.

“You’re alright now.” A flash of movement in Sam’s glasses, Blaine span round and caught the man’s punch mid swing, fighting to push back against him.

“You picked the wrong time to mess with me.” Blaine growled, followed by a series of punches barely using his speed to take down the attacker who now lay on the floor.

“Kid!” Came a shout from down the road. Blaine’s heart jumped and turned to the sound, eagerly searching for the source of the voice. The officer was standing close to the corner of the block, Blaine’s heart fell again, she was running into the middle of the road with horror on her face. Blaine followed he eyeline and found it’s source, Sam was running to his dad across the road and a car was inches from him. Blaine ran forwards, reaching out to pull sam out of the way, his fingers grazed against Sam’s shoulders as the car collided with them, knocking Blaine out immediately and sending them both toppling over the top of the car and landing hard on the tarmac behind. 

Blaine woke seconds later and pushed himself to a sitting position and watching the car speed round the corner.

“Sammy?” The Dad was cradling him, “I’m sorry Sammy. Daddy loves you.” The man was weeping.

“Daddy…” Sam breathed before falling limp in his father’s arms.

“Are you okay?” The officer quietly asked. Blaine nodded in response, he couldn’t take his eyes away from the scene before him. “He’ll always want you back. I’ve got this, you go.”

Blaine had already left before the officer had finished her sentence. Running to Stark Tower, to Tony. He was in the sitting room, staring at the lift doors, willing them to bring him his son. They opened with a gentle ding, Tony jumped to his feet and they both rushed forward to a tight, loving hug.

"You came back.” Tony whispered.

“I came home.”


	8. Punches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With each blow Blaine let his emotions take over, each hit on the punching bag fueled by anger, grief, and guilt. Out of breath he briefly lent against the bag, eyes flicking over the burner phone that Fury gave him, Blaine made sure he kept it with him at all times. The sight on the phone renewed his guilt, how can I help SHIELD when I can’t help my own family?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of bad news, updates will be few and far between for a month or so, really sorry about that but with a little patience we'll get right back into the swing of things.

With each blow Blaine let his emotions take over, each hit on the punching bag fueled by anger, grief, and guilt. Out of breath he briefly lent against the bag, eyes flicking over the burner phone that Fury gave him, Blaine made sure he kept it with him at all times. The sight on the phone renewed his guilt,  _ how can I help SHIELD when I can’t help my own family? _ , he thought stepping back and letting lightning flow with one last punch that sent the punching bag across the room. Blaine took some deep breaths and focused on reigning in his emotions once more. He took a few mouthfuls of the anti-palladium concoction, now used to the foul taste. 

After a few minutes he carefully undid his hand wraps, glad that Happy had taught him how to wrap them years before. As he did so Tony pushed open the glass door holding a small box, he eyed the bag slumped against the far wall, “You got a mean swing.”

“Happy’s not going to be too pleased with me.” Blaine laughed gently.

“I’ll smooth things over.” Tony replied, Blaine hadn’t failed to notice Tony had been all too willing to help him with everything he could though it was understandable why and Blaine knew he should be grateful, a small part of him wished they could just go back to normal.  _ If normal even exists anymore…  _ Instead of replying Blaine perched on the stool, discreetly tucking the phone, which had been lying there, into his pocket.

“Guess what, kid.” Tony pulled over a second stool. 

“Coffee?”

“No, actually yes but no. It’s Sunday.”

“Yeah I know, back to Dalton tomorrow.”

“Your birthday.”

“Oh, yeah I suppose it is.” Blaine said with surprise.

“Isn’t your sweet sixteen a big deal?”

“Yeah for normal people, I’m not exactly normal am I.” Tony cocked his head to the side and raised an eyebrow questioningly. “I mean, you’re my day.” He laughed, Tony couldn’t help but smirk. 

“I got you something, I know the timing’s bad but it’s a limited time deal.” Tony handed over the box. “Happy birthday.” Blaine untied the ribbon on top and opened it up. Inside was two pieces of paper, he immediately recognised the first one. 

“Hamilton tickets?” He asked excitedly causing Tony to smile at the glee on his son's face. “Wait, for three? Is Auntie Pepper coming?” 

“No, Pep’s joining us for the next bit.” Tony gestured back to the box, Blaine pulled out the next piece of paper. 

It was a handwritten note from Tony,  _ Hamilton Friday evening, then a brief flight to Monaco for the 500 race and stay for the weekend. _

“Stark Industries is sponsoring a driver so we’ve all been invited to attend.” Tony explained quickly, “Me, you, Pep, and Happy. Plus a spare seat.”

“We could invite Uncle Rhodey.”

“Rhodey’s busy next weekend. I thought you could invite a friend.”

“Really?” Nerves ticked up his spine, since he could remember he’d been immensely proud of having Tony as a father, no matter how much he joked, and inviting someone to join them on a trip was a reciprocation he’d rarely felt before. Of course he knew Tony loved him, but keeping his son secret from the world had always left a slight lingering sense of shame in Blaine’s mind.

Tony nodded in response, still grinning at his son’s shocked face. “You’re older now and can protect yourself, maybe it’s time we stop hiding this. Plus who’s going to mess with Iron Man’s son.”

_ Iron Man’s enemies...  _ Blaine thought, “Maybe in a few weeks, once things have settled a little.” 

“Hey, it’s up to you. It’s getting late, go get a few hours of sleep before going back. You wanna look your best for Kurt.” Tony teased.

Blaine felt himself start to blush and quickly hurried to his room.

 

* * *

 

The following morning Blaine was back at Dalton, following the directions of a cryptically worded text from Wes he headed to the choir room.

“Surprise!” Yelled the Warblers as Blaine entered, Jeff was by far the loudest. Blaine smiled wide as they welcomed him into the room.

“You missed our victory party so we put one on for you.” Nick said proudly, “Y’know, seeing as you’re the main reason we won.”

“We won because we’re great as a team, but thanks.” Blaine smiled.

“Speaking of the team…” Wes trailed off and gestured to the other door, Kurt beamed from the doorway.

“Hey.” He said, walking over and quickly hugging Blaine.

“You really suit that blazer.” Blaine complimented.

“Get a room!” Shouted Jeff causing Blaine to blush and step away from Kurt looking sheepishly at the floor.

“Anyway…” David dragged out the word as he shot a look at Jeff, “We heard Kurt singing at Sectionals and we decided you, if you wish, could join the Warblers.”

Kurt stared wide eyed at David before nodding vigorously, lost for words. David chuckled as the bell rang, signalling the start of lesson. “Welcome to the team Kurt!”

 

* * *  

 

Blaine hurriedly packed his books into his bag and rushed to catch Wes before they met at their usual lunch table. He weaved down the hall and tapped Wes on the shoulder.

“Oh Blaine, hey!”

“Hey, I have something to ask you. Not here though, outside?” Wes agreed and they headed for the door.

“So, it was my birthday yesterday-”

“Oh I had no idea, I would’ve got you something” 

“Don’t worry about it I forgot anyway.” Blaine paused to take a breath, suddenly nervous about asking Wes to spend time with his family.

“Wha- You forgot?”

“Yeah, that’s not the important part anyway. I was going to ask, since you know about my Dad I thought you, I mean it’s totally up to you I know this isn’t exactly a normal situation, maybe you would like to come and see Hamilton then spend a weekend with us in Monaco. Dad’s coming to Hamilton then we’re meeting Auntie Pepper and Uncle Happy at the airport. Oh and we’re watching the 500 race? I don’t actually know what that is but…” Blaine’s rambling trailed off as Wes laughed. “Was it something I said?”

“What didn’t you say?” Wes chuckled. “Start again but a little slower.”

Blaine explained again, being sure to make enough sense for Wes to keep up. By the end Wes was practically jumping with excitement. “You really want me to come?”

“Yeah, of course.” 

“So, I’m going to meet The Tony Stark, watch Hamilton, and spend the weekend in Monaco?” Wes asked incredulously. Blaine nodded. “What about your aunt and uncle?”

“They’re great. Uncle Happy is the head of security at Stark Industries, he used to be Dad’s bodyguard but no one takes that job seriously anymore. He’s a stickler for the rules but great fun when he’s loosened up. Auntie Pepper is funny and hardworking and fierce, I mean she’s the CEO!”

“They sound like a great power couple.”

“Wha- No, sorry. They’re not actually my Aunt and Uncle, just Dad’s friends. They used to babysit me when he was busy, Uncle Rhodey too. If anyone’s a couple it’s Dad and Pepper but they have yet to act, you should see they way Dad looks at her when he thinks no one’s looking.”

“Sounds like I have a lot to catch up on before Friday.”

 

* * *

 

Blaine ran back to New York after his final lesson, “Hey Dad?” He called out from the living room, when he received no response Blaine b-lined for the lab. Tony was working on his armour, adjusting the foot thrusters. “Hey, how’s it going?”

“Hey kid. Yeah, I’ve been working on this all day. I’m trying to create a suit that can fold away into something smaller, more transportable, but I can’t compact the thrusters enough.”

Blaine glanced over the holographic schematics being projected into the centre of the room. “I might be able to fix that, Jarvis bring up schematic 4B.” Another projection appeared, “I played around with the thruster design, it’s a little smaller but just as powerful, if not more.”

Tony looked over it, “This is good stuff kid. You must have a great teacher.”

“I’m not sure great is the right word.”

“Amazing, genius, talented?”

“He’s something. Anyway I’ve invited someone to come on Friday.”

Tony slid out from behind the suit and looked Blaine in the eye. “It better not be Kurt.”

“Wha- Why?”

“You’re going to share a room in Monaco and I’m not giving up my Master Suite just to keep you two from-”

“No it’s not Kurt!” Blaine interrupted loudly, “Wes, he’s a Warbler, you saw him perform at sectionals. He was so excited when I asked.”

Tony paused, “And I can leave you two to share a room.”

“Yes Dad. The Suite’s all yours.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed! As I said it'll be a little choppy on the updates side but we'll get back into the swing in next to no time!


	9. Showtime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I just wanted to protect you.” Tony muttered, “It’s all I’ve wanted and I can’t. Not anymore.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! It's a little shorter than normal but I wanted to get something out *almost* on time. Enjoy and thanks for reading!!

“I actually, really, genuinely cannot believe I’m about to meet The Tony Stark!” Wes practically jumped with excitement as they walked through the New York streets. “Freakin’ Iron Man!”

Blaine couldn’t stop a grin creeping across his face, “This is why I didn’t bring you straight home, imagine him meeting you when you’re like this.” 

“I hate to tell you but there’s no way I’m calming down for the entire weekend Blaine.”

“I didn’t expect any different. Oh here, you’re gonna love this view, ready?” They reached the corner of 36th Street and Park Avenue. As they rounded the corner Blaine skipped ahead and held out his arms wide for Wes to see, behind Blaine was the gleaming profile of Stark Tower. 

“It’s  _ so much _ better in real life.” Wes said excitedly, Blaine grinned about to drop his arms when Wes interrupted. “Wait! Hold on, don’t move.” He pulled out his phone, snapped a photo, and showed it to Blaine who smiled sorrowfully. 

“Mum used to take a picture of me every holiday when we were all here together, just like that. Cooper too before he went to LA, I’ve got a scrap book with each one in…” Blaine trailed off, “I guess it’ll never be filled.”

“I’m so sorry Blaine, I didn’t mean t-“ Wes began.

“No don’t be, it’s a great picture. I’m sorry for bringing the mood down, you want one?” Wes modded enthusiastically and handed over his phone. 

They walked in comfortable silence for a couple of blocks before Wes spoke up. “You don’t talk about your brother a lot, what’s he like?”

Blaine thought for a moment. “Honestly I’ve not seen him for a long time. He’s twenty two now, moved to LA four years ago to try and make it as an actor. Came back after I was attacked, he was there the whole time, even when Dad was captured and Mum was barely coping he held it all together.” Blaine sighed gently, “He was never on board with the whole Flash thing and we fought, a lot. He moved back, I didn’t even say bye.” By the end they were almost at the Tower door. “You ready for this?”

“Not even close!”

“It’ll be fine, just don’t be too weird.” Blaine jumped up the few stairs leading up to the main door and held it open as Wes walked in. Blaine followed and directed him to the reception desk, “I’ve got to sign in for the Internship.” Wes nodded knowingly, “And let them know who you are of course.” They waited in line for a couple minutes before it was their turn.

“Hey!” The receptionist spoke cheerily. “Here for the Internship?”

“Hey Ryan, Internship it is.” He let Ryan type for a moment before continuing. “This is Wes Leung, Mr Stark should be expecting him.”

“Ah yes! I saw your name on the list earlier, head on up. Have a good time guys!” Ryan smiled at the next person in line, enthusiastically greeting them and they left.

Blaine led the way towards the private lift that would take them to the penthouse. “Oh! Sorry Happy.” Blaine said almost bumping into him.

“Good, I was hoping to catch you.” Happy turned to Wes and pulled out a name badge from his pocket. “This is for you.”

“He doesn’t need a badge, Tony knows he’s here.”

Happy wordlessly looked Blaine in the eye as he held out the badge to Wes who took it nervously. “Thank you, see you later. And put on your own badge Blaine.” Happy left quickly.

Blaine checked there was no one in earshot, “So that’s Uncle Happy, he’s a stickler for the rules but you really don’t have to wear that badge.”

“I don’t know, I kind of like it.” Wes grinned as he clipped it to the pocket of his shirt. Blaine laughed as the two stepped into the lift.

“Good afternoon Sir. I’m guessing this must be Wes?” 

“I was going to introduce you first J, but yes. Wes that’s Jarvis, he helps out around the tower, and on missions actually. Dad needs a lot of babysitting.” 

The lift doors opened with a soft ding and both boys stepped out into the lavish room before them. Wes slowly walked to the centre of the room, taking in every inch of the space; stairs either side of the lift, bar to the right seating area with fireplace to the left, and finally the floor to ceiling windows that looked out across the city. Blaine joined Wes by the window, “My room’s right above this, it’s quite a view to wake up to. That’s the Chrysler Building of course, and that’s the East River behind, Brooklyn Bridge is right over there but you get a much better view from the landing deck or balcony.” 

Wes couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of his situation, Blaine was about to speak when another voice filled the room. “Hi boys.” Pepper caught their attention as she crossed the room towards them. Wes quickly introduced himself, “Well it’s great to meet you, we’ll have plenty of time to get to know each other this weekend I’m sure.” She turned to Blaine, “Tony wanted to speak to you in the lab, Wes and I will meet you back here in five.”

“Thanks Auntie Pepper, see you in a minute Wes.” Blaine hurried downstairs. As Blaine arrived in the lab he could tell something was wrong. The usually cluttered worktops where clear and their contents strewn across the floor. “Dad?” He asked picking his way through the mess to where Tony sat, head in his hands.

“I just wanted to protect you.” Tony muttered, “It’s all I’ve wanted and I can’t. Not anymore.”

“What do you mean?” Worry was evident in Blaine’s voice.

“Every element. I’ve run simulations on every single alternative for palladium and none come anywhere near close enough to keep either of us alive.” He slowly looked up, pain etched into his eyes. “Kid this is it. We’re not getting through this time, it’s just a waiting game now. I’m so sorry. Enjoy what you have before you’re gone.” Tears threatened to fall from both men’s eyes.

“Let- Let’s get through this weekend. Just a few more days then we’ll do... well whatever it takes.”

Tony smiled, unable to bring himself to break the optimism his son still held, “Okay, it’s a plan. Now, I think there’s someone I’m supposed to meet.”

 

* * * 

 

Soon Blaine, Wes, and Tony were walking out of a side door of the Richard Rodgers Theatre after the show. Both boys were animatedly raving over every detail while Tony smiled and guided them to the car to take them to the airport. The hours flew by and soon they were halfway across the Atlantic, Blaine found himself with a private moment with Tony.

“I’ve been thinking, about Hamilton…”

“Yeah you and Wes have been talking non-stop about it. Pun intended.”

“No I mean- Alex is all about legacy. If we’re… well I want to leave one, not The Flash or Iron Man. If we’re gone they’re gone too.”

“Did you have anything in mind?”

“Arc Reactors, ours alone could run the Tower for at least a year. Slight modifications and we have a fully sustainable system, free clean energy that won’t run out. The world would be so much better off with this.”

Tony nodded along, a smile pulling at his lips, “We can do that. But like you said, let’s get through this weekend first, and that means go get some sleep.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I didn't know, neither could I find Wes' surname so I used the actors.  
> Quick note that updates may be irregular in time/length for a few weeks.  
> Thanks for sticking with this story for so long, and thanks to any new readers too!!


	10. Whiplash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things don't go according to plan at Monaco.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little late and a little short but still a new chapter, thanks for reading!!

Tony arrived at the Hotel De Paris drawing the attention of the crowds while Blaine and Wes slipped in through a side door in an attempt to keep somewhat out of press photos. 

“Who’s that?” Wes asked as he straightened his suit jacket. He gestured towards a lady wearing a red dress who was guiding Tony and Pepper to a table.

“I have no idea. Maybe she just works here.” Blaine watched as Tony talked animatedly with her before pointing at him, the lady spotted Blaine through the crowd and made her way over while Tony nodded at Blaine quickly.

“Blaine Anderson?” She asked as she approached before shaking his hand.

“Yes, it’s nice to meet you Mrs…”

“Rushman. But please, call me Natalie.” She smiled, “I’m Mr Stark’s new assistant. He was just telling me you’re in the Internship Programme. Are you coming to join us at the table?”

“We were just about to head over.”

The three headed back to the table, Natalie excused herself while Blaine and Wes took their seats. Across the room Blaine spotted Tony, tensing when he noticed who he was talking to. Tony was standing face to face with Justin Hammer, Blaine could practically see the anger rolling off him, his hands were balled into fits as Pepper tried to diffuse the conversation. Eventually Tony stormed from the room and Pepper hurried to the table.

“Do you know what that about?” She asked Blaine.

“I-” Blaine paused, “No, no idea. Sorry.” The table lapsed into silence.

 

* * *

 

“Um… Is that supposed to be happening?” Wes asked, eyes fixed on the screen showing the race.

“No! Natalie?” Pepper called into the crowd gathering around the screens, “Blaine did you know?”

“No, of course not. He’s never driven before, he doesn’t have any experience.” Blaine walked closer to the screen. Tony was getting seated in the car Stark Industries was sponsoring, much to the annoyance of the real driver. 

Blaine’s eyes were glued to the screen as the racers lined up, preparing to race. Engines revved as the starting lights began to light up, his stomach dropped as the cars raced down the track, thankfully Tony seemed to know what he was doing.

Screams caught his attention and the camera switched to show a marshal in orange uniform step into the middle of the track. Blaine watched in horror as the top of his uniform burned away to reveal a metal exoskeleton supporting an arc reactor on his chest and electric whips in each hand.

Blaine fought his way through the crowd back to Wes and Pepper who were staring shocked at the screen. “Happy! Where’s Happy?” Blaine shouted. 

“Natalie’s gone to find him, he’ll be back any minute. We’ve got to get Tony his suit.” Pepper left Blaine and Wes in search of Happy.

“Wes, I’ve got to go. I’m sorry, stay here and stay safe. If you see Natalie stay with her.” Wes nodded his understanding as his eyes were drawn back to the scene unfolding on the track were the attackers weapons had cut clean through cars leaving fiery wreaks across the track. Blaine watched in horror as he saw Tony crawl out from the wreckage and slip from the attackers view. “I have to help.” He mumbled as he sped out of the side door they’d entered earlier and followed the hedge row to where he retrieved a backpack he’d stashed when entering, hastily pulling open the zip to reveal familiar red fabric. 

Swapping one suit for the other Blaine replaced the backpack and ran to the scene just in time to see Tony scrabbling backward to avoid being severed by the electric whips. He jumped to his feet, attempting to run but was blown into an upturned racecar by the power of a whip hitting the ground by his feet. He locked eyes with Blaine, who was so far unnoticed by the attacker, they were calm as he discretely pointed to fuel dripping from the engine. Blaine understood Tony’s plan and turned his attention to helping the injured drivers escape flaming cars, moments later an explosion sounded from Tony’s position and a quick glance showed Tony patting out a fire on his arm but otherwise unharmed.

A black car raced round the corner, headed straight for Tony who scrambled up the chain link fence as the car crushed the attacker against it below him. 

“Were you aiming for me or him?” Tony asked the driver as he jumped down.

“I was trying to scare him.” Happy replied.

“I think you gave him whiplash.” Blaine called causing Tony to smirk at the pun.

“Are you out of your mind?” Pepper shouted.

“I was attacked!” Tony shouted back. The pair continued bickering as Blaine helped the final race to safety. Turning his attention back to the fight he noticed Whiplash was stirring.

“The case. Give him the case!” Blaine shouted but his cries fell on deaf ears. He shouted louder, trying to gain their attention, Whiplash pulled back both his arms, whips trailing along the floor leaving deep scorches in the tarmac. He raised them above his head, still unnoticed by the bickering trio, his aim was clear and would spell the end for all three. Blaine ran fast, electricity rippling through him.

As he approached his lightning began converge on his chest, he watched in slow motion as the electricity from the whips seemed to leave them and arc through the air, to his horror it was aimed at the spot his lightning was situated. Blaine tried to dodge to the side but it was too fast even for him. The instant the two bodies of electricity touched they erupted in a fiery blast, pain ripped through him and his body flew backwards through the air. The blast flipped the car across the track and sent Whiplash and Tony sprawling along the tarmac.

Wes cried out, all he saw was a flash of blinding bright light as the explosion rocked the building. He looked around to see Natalie staring helplessly at the screen. The smoke cleared leaving five bodies strewn across the track.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dun dun duuunnn...
> 
> Thanks for reading!! Updates for a few weeks may be unreliable in time and length, thanks for sticking with me!


	11. Explosion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony comes to after an explosion tore through the fight against Whiplash and has to face the consequences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again it's a little shorter than previous chapter, thanks for reading!!

Tony saw the case, he had to get the case, ignoring his aching body he crawled on his hands and knees eventually pushing himself to his feet and kicking open the case. Stepping inside, the Mark V suit began to assemble around him, now protected he took in the scene around him. Whiplash lay still near the edge of the track, Happy was stirring at the wheel of the currently upside down car he and Pepper were in, she was laying on the roof, not moving but awake and speaking to Happy, Blaine was…

He looked frantically in all directions, Blaine had been at the center of the explosion, whatever state he was in couldn’t be good. Tony moved closer to the car, checking first on Pepper then helping Happy out of the wreckage. 

“Pep, you okay?”

“I… I think so yeah, nothing too serious.”

“You’ve got a head injury, you and Happy need to get out of here and checked out.” Tony said noticing blood in Peppers hair. “Happy? How you doing?”

“I’m fine, seat belt saved me from getting too hurt.”

“Get Pepper somewhere safe, find the others, and get her head checked over.”

Happy nodded and the pair ran to safety, Tony continued to search for any sight of Blaine. In an instant something wrapped around the neck of his suit, it flowed electricity through his suit powering it beyond its normal capabilities. Using this to his advantage Tony took deliberate steps towards Whiplash, with each one he wrapped the whips around his body, keeping his arms free, when he’d closed the distance he landed a couple of well placed punches, knocking whiplash off balance before he flipped him over his own body and into the floor, ripping out the arc reactor from his exoskeleton. 

A team of high armoured people ran out onto the track, taking whiplash into their custody.

“Flash?” Tony called into his comms, receiving nothing but silence back. He stood where the centre of the explosion was, clearly marked by scorched tarmac, searching for clues as to where Blaine had landed. A rip through the chain link fence caught his interest, he flew over and relief washed over him as he saw the bright red of Blaine’s suit. Landing beside him he spoke, “Blaine?” He gently tried to wake his son. “Jarvis, what’s his pulse.”

“10bpm, he requires immediate medical assistance.”

Tony was already scooping Blaine into his arms as Jarvis spoke and he took to the skies, phoning Happy as he left. 

“Is his reactor working Jarvis?”

“It sustained major damage but appears to be functioning, Sir.”

 

\------

 

Slowly Blaine opened his eyes, squinting against the light, immediately a gentle hand touched his shoulder and a soft voice spoke though he didn’t understand what it said. He rubbed a shaky hand against his forehead as he slowly regained his senses.

“Blaine? How’re you feeling?” 

Blaine turned his head on the pillow to see Wes sitting on a stool next to his bed. “Urgh, my head…”

“Doctors said you must have hit it pretty hard, and you sustained burns, a few broken bones too.”

“So just a short list.” Blaine chuckled then winced in pain. “Are you okay? Dad? Pepper?”

“Tony’s in the next room recovering, he’s sleeping at the moment, I believe,  the doctors wouldn’t let him leave to sit with you and made him rest. Pepper and Happy had minor injuries, Natalie and I are fine.”

Blaine nodded slowly, fearing quicker movement would only worsen his headache. 

“I phoned in to Dalton, told them we wouldn’t be in because for a day or two. Didn’t tell them the truth of course but, well there’s someone here you really wants to see you, he heard you got hurt and flew up here. I’ll be back in a sec.” Wes left, returning a minute later with Kurt, still in his Dalton uniform, then excused himself again leaving the two alone. 

“Hey.” Blaine said after a pause. 

“Hey? That’s all you’ve got?” Kurt say gently on the corner of the hospital bed while Blaine awkwardly shifted himself to a more upright position. “I mean, are you okay? What happened to you?”

“I’ll be just fine, don’t worry about me.”

“Don’t worry about you? Blaine you’re the one I worry about most.” Kurt cut himself off as if just realising what he said. 

“Kurt I-”

“No, shh. Don’t say anything I didn’t mean that, just pretend I didn’t.”

Blaine was silent, looking into Kurt’s perfectly blue eyes until he returned the gaze. “I don’t want to pretend. You didn’t mean it?”

“No I did, I meant every word.” He leaned in as he spoke, closing the distance between them, Kurt's eyes flicked over Blaine’s lips before kissing Blaine deeply. “I’ve been waiting a long time to do that.” He muttered moving away slightly. 

Blaine closed the distance again, resting his forehead on Kurt’s and whispering gently, “Me too, the first time we met I knew there was something about you.”

“What kind of something.”

“Something wonderful.”

“Hope I’m not interrupting.” The boys jumped apart at the sound of Tony’s voice, faces growing bright red as they intently stared at the floor. “Going to introduce me.” 

“Yeah um, this is Kurt Hummel. Kurt that’s m-”

“Tony Stark!” Kurt sat open mouthed. “I- I don’t know what to say.”

“That’s a common reaction, would you mind if I had a moment alone with Blaine?”

“Yes of course Sir.” Kurt scurried from the room. 

Tony took Wes’ stool, “Can I check your arc reactor is still working properly?” 

“Yeah sure.” Tony checked it over for any damage, both ignored the burns on his chest. 

“Doctors said you should be just fine soon.”

“Yeah, um… Dad, I can’t feel my legs.”


	12. What Happened in Harlem

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something strange happened in Harlem

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo, this is a very short chapter to make up for the lack of updates BUT I'm already working on the next part so hopefully updates will be much more often now.  
> Thanks for reading!!

“It’s good news kid. There’s progress.”

“It’s not the news I wanted.” Blaine struggled to maneuver himself out of the car with his newly acquired crutches. “I’ve been in a wheelchair for days.”

“It means all the physical therapy you’ve been doing is working.” Tony purposefully walked slowly so Blaine could keep up.

“What if I can never… do what I do again? I can’t just sit back and watch, not after...”

“You don’t need to worry about that yet, right now the fact you can walk at all is a miracle. Just give yourself time to recover.”

“I want to go back to Dalton.”

“That’s the complete opposite of what I just said.”

“Yeah. I’m still going though.” 

Tony sighed as Blaine moved ahead, “I just want to keep you safe.” He muttered quietly.

“Hey,” Blaine called back, “So you know how Harlem got all smashed up while we were getting our asses kicked?”

“Yeah the ‘gas leak’” Tony said with air quotes.

“Well I didn’t believe it either. I did some digging and there were rumours of people saying there was some sort of monster, two of them fighting! But all traces of that being said are no where to be found.”

“Monsters? Really? Kid we do science not fairytales.”

“I know, that’s just the thing. This is science. After that I hacked into a SHIELD database, it was a shot in the dark but it’s true, there was a fight between two… well I’m not sure what they were but they’re not human, entirely at least. I couldn’t get all the information but one of them was working with Lieutenant General Ross, you’ve met a couple of times, anyway this is the best part. Both of these things have a human side as well, and guess who it is. I’ll give you a clue, I’ve studied this guy’s work for years.”

Tony thought for a moment then shook his head disbelievingly, “No! Everything you just said, it’s all crazy.”

“Think about it, he dropped of the radar entirely when his experiment backfired. It fits.”

“No way did Doctor Bruce Banner, a world renowned scientist and your personal hero, destroy part of the city.”

“Dr Banner didn’t, but according to SHIELD his other side did. You know about his last experiment right?”

“Yeah, there was an explosion during testing with gamma radiation. Hang on, you think that caused this?”

“I think it’s the only explanation. He disappeared straight after, it all fits.”

“I’m not sure kid, there could be other explanations.”

“It’s even got a name. The Hulk."


	13. Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I’ve seen the way Kurt looks at you, and the way you look at him. There’s nothing to worry about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Early chapter to make up for the recent lack of updates, hope you enjoy!!

Wes and Blaine sat on the bleachers watching the football team at practice after school, talking quietly so as not to be overheard by other spectators. "So the guy who attacked the race was someone called Ivan Vanko?"

“That’s what we were told. Dad’s doing some research on him but I think I might already know who he is.”

“What do you mean? How?”

“Well Dad doesn’t talk about Grandpa Howard much so I spent a lot of time reading about pretty much everything he did, including when he worked with a guy called _Anton Vanko_. They developed the first arc reactor, full size like the one at the Stark Industries Headquarters, but they had different idea of what to do with it. Eventually Vanko was found guilty of espionage and Grandpa took the credit for the reactor while Vanko got none. I reckon that Ivan is his son who’s hell bent on revenge against Dad.”

“Well it certainly serves as a good motive.” 

Blaine couldn’t help but smile, both boys sat quietly for a few moments watching practice. Wes was the first to speak, sounding almost nervous. “I have a theory.”

Blaine turned to Wes questioningly, signaling for him to continue. “Well, I was thinking of other ways you can use your speed and well, I think that if you were to move fast enough you could phase straight through objects.”

Blaine nodded excitedly, “Yeah! If I moved at the same frequency as the particles of an object they could pass through each other, right?”

“Exactly what I was thinking!”

“Wes we’ve gotta try this!” Blaine checked the time on his phone, “Hang on, sorry. I’m meant to meet Kurt in a few minutes.” He apologised as he scooped up his crutches, Wes offered to help but Blaine pretended he hadn’t heard, determined to help himself.

“Are you finally going on a date? Jeff will be so happy.” Wes teased.

Blaine blushed, “Yeah, I’m so nervous.”

“Hey I’ve seen the way Kurt looks at you, and the way _you_ look at him. There’s nothing to worry about.” Wes smiled.

 

* * *

 

Kurt and Blaine sipped their coffee, quietly chatting and laughing. “So I put on a baseball cap, brown khakis and the plainest shirt I owned. Spoke in the deepest voice I could and even sang Pink Houses.” Kurt couldn’t help but smile as he told the story, Blaine laughed loudly.

“Did anyone believe you?”

“Of course not! If anything I think it cemented the fact I’m gay, you should have seen some of the looks the glee club gave me that week!” Kurt laughed with Blaine, he slipped his hand into Blaine’s and squeezed tightly. Blaine’s heart skipped a beat as he looked up into Kurt’s eyes, Kurt leant across the table and pressed his lips against Blaine’s, kissing him slowly. Blaine’s chest tightened and he took deep breaths as Kurt pulled away, lovingly gazing into each others eyes.

“Kurt…” Blaine breathed, putting a hand on his chest and feeling the metal underneath.

“I’m so glad you agreed to come, I couldn’t be happier.” Kurt spoke softly, making Blaine blush.

“Kurt.” Blaine voice was barely above a whisper.

“Blaine, I lo-” Kurt stopped abruptly as Blaine pulled his hand from Kurt’s and hastily pushed himself to his feet, fearful eyes meeting Kurt’s. “Blaine?”

Blaine staggered from the coffee shop, catching the attention of all the customers and nearly knocking over a waitress with a tray full of drinks. He collapsed to his hands and knees outside, crutches forgotten inside, frantically trying to catch his breath.

Inside Kurt watched, worry etched on his face, when he saw Blaine collapse he jumped to his feet, grabbed Blaine’s crutches and abandoned phone and ran out after him. Blaine was sitting in the car park outside, breathing deeply and erratically. He crouched beside him, “What’s wrong, how can I help?”

“Phone…” Blaine gasped, tapping his pockets trying to find it.

“Here.” Kurt offered the phone he grabbed, Blaine snatched it and speed dialed his Tony. He picked up on the first ring.

“I know kid, Jarvis told me your reactor’s failing, it must be the palladium. I’m already on my way.”

“Hurry…” Was all Blaine could manage to say.

“I’m about a minute out, stay on the phone. Just breathe for me Blaine.”

“What can I do to help?” Kurt asked feeling useless.

“Just go.” Blaine couldn’t stand Kurt seeing him like this, neither did he want him to find out who his dad was in a car park while he couldn’t breathe.

“But-” He started to protest.

“Go!”

Kurt got up and hurriedly walked away, not able to hide the pain on his face.

Blaine stumbled to the other side of the car park where it was less visible from the coffee shop. Moments later Iron Man landed and Tony stepped out of the suit pulling a new reactor core from his pocket. Blaine replaced the core and lent against a tree, trying to catch his breath again.

“You feel better?” Tony asked after a moment.

“Yeah, much better.”

“You been drinking the treatment?”

“Every hour, just like you said.”

Tony sighed, “I guess the palladium poisoning is progressing too fast, we’ll have to take more. And from now on your not leaving without bringing a new core in case this happens again. 

“For once I agree with you’re overly protective rules, I do not want to go through that again.” His face fell.

“What’s up?”

“I was here with Kurt and I told him to leave, he looked so hurt.”

“It’ll be fine, if he cares about you he’ll be fine. Right now were going home.”

“But-”

“No. Nope, we’re going.”

 

* * *

 

A few hours later in the outskirts of New York

Tony and Blaine sat in the doughnut on the roof of an empty cafe, Tony wearing the Iron Man suit and Blaine in whatever he first found when he got home, two boxes of doughnuts balanced in between them, quietly eating. Movement to the left caught Blaine’s eye, when he looked over he saw a familiar face. “Dad, we’ve got a visitor.” He nodded towards them. 

Tony followed his gaze and rolled his eyes. “No fun suckers allowed, Fury.” He called down. 

“I’m gonna have to ask you to exit the doughnut!” Nick Fury shouted in return. 

Reluctantly Blaine gathered the doughnut boxes and Tony landed them safely on the ground. “My intern, Blaine.” Tony said before Nick could even ask the question. They followed him inside and sat at a booth. 

“I told you, I don’t want to join your super secret boyband.” Tony said. 

“No, see, I remember you do everything yourself. How’s that working out for you?” Nick indicated the snaking patchwork of black sneaking up Tony’s neck, noticing the same on Blaine. “That’s not looking too good.”

“It’s getting worse.” Tony mumbled. 

A familiar voice spoke from across the room. “We’ve secured the perimeter but I don’t think we should hang around too long.” Blaine and Tony both watched in stunned silence as Natalie sat next to Nick dressed in a black SHIELD uniform.

“You’re… fired.” Tony stammered.

“That’s not up to you.”

“Tony, I’d like to introduce you to Agent Natasha Romanoff. We sent her to keep an eye on you.” 

“Agent Romanoff told me that you let Colonel Rhodes fly off with your suit.”

“Wait, what?” Blaine turned to Tony.

“I didn’t let him, he took it.”

“He took it! You’re Iron Man and he just took it!” Nick said loudly, “Does that have anything to do with the maze on your neck?” Tony remained silent, Natasha quietly left the table again as Nick continued. “You’ve become a problem, Stark. A problem that I’ve got to deal with and I’ve got bigger problems than you to deal with. Hit him.” Nick spoke over Tony’s shoulder. Blaine turned quickly and grabbed Natasha’s wrist as she was about to inject Tony with something.

“It’s not a cure, but it’ll break the symptoms for a while.” Natasha said, after a few seconds Blaine let go of her wrist and she injected them both with the serum. Blaine could immediately feel it tackling the palladium, feeling better than he had in weeks. “Doesn’t look like it’s gonna be an easy fix.”

“Trust me I know, I’m good at this stuff. I’ve tried looking for a replacement for palladium. I’ve tried every combination, every permutation of every known element.”

“Well I’m here to tell you you haven’t tried them all.”


	14. Discovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time is running out for Blaine and Tony, it's time to find a replacement for palladium.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So for some reason this Chapter took longer than expected to write but it's here now! Thanks for reading!!

__ “’I’m here to tell you you haven’t tried them all’ who does he think he is? No one talks like that. And why did he insist we have to do this at the Malibu house? I have school to get too!” Blaine moaned loudly. “How come he knew Rhodey took a suit before I did?”

“About that…” They rounded a corner, walking round the house to a balcony at overlooking the sea behind the house. Blaine turned his attention from the view to the house and froze on the spot.

“I’m not sure how I feel about the remodeling.” Blaine said sarcastically, indicating the destroyed back wall of the house. Tony winced when he saw the scope of the damage.

“It didn’t look that bad last night.”

“This happened at your party?”

Tony nodded, “It got a little out of hand then me and Rhodey ended up fighting, in the suits of course-”

“Yeah I can tell that.”

“Before he took off with the Mark 2 we fired the repulsors at the same time, they collided and exploded.” He gestured to the mess. Blaine thought for a moment before replying.

“Did they collide the same way two spells do in Harry Potter?”

Tony sighed, “Yes.”

“Awesome.” Blaine smiled.

“What’s not awesome is the unfinished technology in your chest.” Both turned at the sound of Fury’s voice. They sat on chairs on the balcony.

“No it was finished, just never very effective until I miniaturised it.”

“Howard said the arc reactor was just a stepping stone onto something greater. He was gonna kick off an energy race that would dwarf the arms race. He was on to something big.”

Blaine was on the edge of his chair, eager to hear about his Grandpa. “It was Anton Vanko that stopped that, right?”

Both Nick and Tony looked shocked that Blaine knew the name. “Your intern does his research.”

“He’s good, what did you expect? You said we haven’t tried everything so what’s left?”

“Howard also said that you were the only person with the means and knowledge to finish what he started. Are you that guy?” When Tony didn’t answer Nick continued. “What do you remember about your Dad?”

“He was cold, he was calculating. He never told me he loved me, never even said he liked me, so it’s a little hard to digest that you’re telling me he said the whole future was riding on me. We’re talking about the man who’s happiest day was when he shipped me off to boarding school.”

“That’s not true.”

“Then clearly you knew him better than I did.”

“As a matter of fact I did. He was one of the founding members of SHIELD.”

“No way!” Blaine gasped.

“What?” Tony repeated, just as confused. Three SHIELD agents joined them on the balcony, setting down a large, locked metal box.

“I’ve got a two o’clock, this should be everything you need. Natasha will remain at Stark Industries with her cover intact and you remember Agent Coulson right? Oh and Tony, I got my eye on you.” Nick stood and swiftly left.

“Nice to see you again Agent Coulson.” Blaine said shaking his hand.

“If you could send one of your goon squad down to the Coffee Bean that’d be great.” Tony said.

“I’m not here for that, I’ve been authorised by director Fury to use any means necessary to keep you on the premises. If you attempt to leave or play any games I will taze you and watch Supernanny as you drool into the carpet.” He turned his stern gaze from Tony and smiled at Blaine. “It’s good to see you again Mr Anderson. We’ve disabled all communications so no contact with the outside world. I’ve got to check in with the other agents.” 

“He’s clearly got a crush on you.” Tony said as they watched him walk away.

“Or I’m just polite.”

“Either way, I don’t like it.”

Blaine ignored him and turned his attention to the box, it read  _ Property of H. Stark  _ in bold letters. “Are you sure you wanna look into this?”

“No, but what choice do we have.”

* * *

The next morning Blaine and Tony were still in the lab pouring over the contents of the box. Tony had been studying the first complete blueprint for an arc reactor and had since moved on to watching old tapes of Howard working with Vanko, meanwhile Blaine was studying various notebooks thoroughly.

“Should we tell them about…” Blaine pointed between the two of them.

“No, the less they know about you the better.”

Blaine sighed but decided to save the fight for another day, “Well I’m going to make us some pancakes so come up in a few minutes.” Tony nodded his reply as Blaine went for the stairs, defiantly leaving his crutches behind.

Upstairs, Blaine was chatting with Agent Coulson whilst he made breakfast. “Can I phone my school and let them know I won’t be in, they’re kinda strict about attendance.”

“That won’t be necessary, Director Fury tasked me with sorting that out.”

“How did you manage that? It’s not like they know who you are.”

“I flashed my badge and told them the truth.” Coulson stated simply.

“Wait, what truth?”

“That you’re dying and are working with experts to recover.”

Blaine leaned heavily against the kitchen counter feeling faint. He ran a shaky hand through his messy hair. “What? You can’t just say that to people! My friends are gonna be freaking out and they can’t contact me!”

“Blaine I’m sorry but it  _ is  _ the truth, if this goes right you’ll be back by the end of the week anyway.”

Blaine took a calming breath, “Sorry, I’m just worked up about trying to figure this palladium thing out. Here.” He handed Coulson a plate of pancakes and took the remaining two back down to the lab.

“You’ll never guess what Agent Co-” Blaine looked around the lab confused. “Tony?” He put down the plates and picked up a scrawled note that read  _ Gone to talk to Pepper, she’s angry at me after the party. Cover for me with Coulson.  _ Blaine sighed and ripped the note to pieces, throwing them in a bin so Coulson wouldn’t find out. “More for me.” He said quietly as he took the pancakes over to the notebooks he’d been studying. 

A couple of hours late Tony arrived back, dragging something heavy and wooden behind him, a half eaten box of strawberries balanced on top. Blaine rushed over to help. “Wait, did you buy her strawberries?”

“Yes.”

“But she’s-”

“I know.”

Blaine held back a laugh, “What is this and why are you dragging it through the house?”

“It’s the 1974 model of the Stark Expo, the one my dad made. He left it to me and I never knew why, maybe we’ll find out. See this inscription?  _ The key to the future is here. _ ”

“I finished going through all of his stuff and I can’t shake this feeling that there’s something missing. Everything I’ve read about the reactors seems to have a gap, like something he never finished.” The pair cleared a table at the empty end of the lab, assembled the model, and had Jarvis construct a digital wire frame which was projected vertically in front of them. Blaine leant on a worktop, refusing to give in to the growing pain in his legs.

“Sit.” Tony commanded, pushing a wheelie stool towards Blaine. He made a show of rolling his eyes as he sat but wouldn’t show he was secretly relieved. “What does that look like to you?”

“Almost like an atom, with the globe fountain thing being the nucleus.” 

“Lose the footpaths, and landscaping.” Tony watched as jarvis removed them from the model.

“Structure the protons and neutrons using the pavilions.” Blaine cut in, Tony couldn’t help but smile at the excitement on Blaine’s face. Jarvis constructed the new model, now clearly resembling an element, Tony enlarged it to surround them.

“Dead for almost twenty years, and still taking me to school.” Tony laughed and pulled Blaine into a hug.

“The proposed element should serve as a viable replacement for palladium.” Jarvis spoke.

“This is it kid.” Tony smiled.

“Unfortunately it is impossible to synthesise.”

Tony’s smile faltered. “Grandpa said he was limited by the technology of his time, who’s to say we are?” Blaine said getting to his feet a grabbing a pencil and paper. “Starlabs were close, granted it went wrong, but I’ve been there and I’ve studied everything I can.” Blaine used his speed to quickly draw a blueprint and handed it to Tony.

“You wanna build a particle accelerator? Here in the lab?”

“You gonna help me or not?”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed!!


	15. The New Element

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While building a Particle Accelerator Blaine and Tony discover something from the past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this and the next chapter were originally going to be one but this half felt like it was going on too long so I've split them

“You breached the perimeter, from the inside.” Coulson spoke as he entered the lab.

“Can’t deny that.” Tony replied impassively.

“What’s going on?” Coulson inspected the haphazardly constructed circular tube that ran through the lab.

“Careful!” Blaine warned as Couslon reached out, “It’s not the most well balanced. The perimeter breach was probably that.” Blaine pointed to where they had to knock holes in the wall to complete the circle.

Coulson nodded. “What exactly am I looking at?”

“Particle accelerator, safer and more effective than the Starlabs attempt.” Tony explained but Coulson seemed distracted looking at the contents of a box.

“What’s this doing here?” He asked, pulling out a large metal disk, half covered in red, white, and blue plates with a star at the center. 

“Bring that here, it’s exactly what we need to make this work.” Tony said. Blaine, catching on to Tony’s plan, carefully lifted the coil while Tony slid it into place and tested with a spirit level. “Perfect.”

“Anyway, I came to say goodbye. I’ve been reassigned to New Mexico.” 

“Secret stuff?” Blaine asked.

“Something like that.” Coulson smiled, “Good luck, we need you.”

“Yeah, more than you know.” Tony replied.

“Not that much.” Coulson made a swift exit.

“Since when have we had Captain America’s shield?” Blaine asked excitedly. 

“For ever, it’s just been in deep storage, disturbed by the recent remodeling.”

“Mum used to read me stories of his adventures every night. My favourite was when he rescued Bucky and the others from the Hydra base. He and Grandpa were friends right?”

“Your Grandpa would spend more time searching for him after he crashed into the ice than he did with me, so yeah I’d say they were pretty close.”

Blaine remained quiet, Captain America had always been his hero. The constant selflessness, courage in even the bleakest situations, and always fighting for what’s right. But Tony couldn’t see past the man who pulled his father away.

 

* * *

 

A few hours later Tony returned to the lab, coffee in hand. He rolled his eyes as he heard Blaine’s quiet singing,  _ who wakes the giant that napped in America, we know it’s no one but Captain America… _

“Really?”

“Sorry, it just got in my head.”

“At least you can sing it in tune.”

Blaine laughed. “I think it’s ready.” He said as he placing the glass prism inside the coil. Tony fixed a wrench to a wheel that would align the laser to the new reactor core and had Jarvis turn off the lights.

“Stay back, kid.” Tony warned, he started up the particle accelerator and they both watched as the laser travelled faster around the tube until it was a continuous line. He took hold of the wrench and started to twist the wheel, the laser reflected from the prism out of the coil and cut through anything in its path, Tony kept turning until the laser connected with the reactor core, holding it in place until the core glowed before deactivating the accelerator.

Both boys silently ducked under the coil and walked to the core. “Congratulations, you have created a new element.” Jarvis said.

“Well that was easy.”

Blaine exploded into laughter and Tony soon followed suit. “We did it Dad!”

 

* * *

 

After repeating the process, Tony and Blaine waited while Jarvis ran some tests to ensure the reactors and cores were functioning correctly.

“Sir, incoming call from a blocked number.” Jarvis said.

“Thought we couldn’t be contacted.” Blaine replied suspiciously.

“Tony.” The voice was instantly recognisable as Ivan Vanko.

Tony briefly muted the call, “Jarvis trace that.”

“Soon the true history of the Stark name will be written. What your father did to my family, I will do to you.”

“Sounds good, lets get together and hash it out.” Tony spoke confidently.

“I hope you’re ready.” The line went dead.

“Jarvis did you get him?” Blaine asked.

“Manhattan and outlying boroughs, I didn’t have time for a more specific location.”

“The expo.” Fear was clear in Blaine’s voice.

“It’s Hammer’s presentation tonight. We need to get over there, now!” Tony hurried to fit together both reactors.

“Dad, I don’t know if I can.”

“I need you Blaine. I need the Flash, you can do this.” Tony handed him the reactor and they both fitted them. “It tastes like coconut.”

“And metal.” Blaine shook his head to clear it and focus on the job. “My suit’s still at the Tower, I’ll meet you at the expo.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, hope you enjoyed!!


	16. Back to the Expo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vanko has an army of automated attack drones and they have one goal, destroy the Stark name.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!!

Blaine arrived at the expo just in time to see the opening of Justin Hammer’s presentation. The stage was covered with dozens of so called Hammer Drones, unmanned Iron Man suits. “There’s a lot, if Vanko really is behind this then it’s not gonna be pretty.” He said over comms to Tony who was less than a minute away. 

_ “Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like the present the first prototype of the Variable Threat Response Battlesuit and it’s pilot Colonel James Rhodes!” _

“Please tell me I heard that wrong.”

“I don’t think you did.” Blaine watched as the suit rose from under the stage, seconds later Tony landed just in front of him and the crowd roared, he quietly talked to Rhodey. 

“Everyone here’s in trouble.”

“What?”

“Hammer, we think he’s working with Vanko.” 

Before Rhodey could reply the minigun mounted to the suit shoulder armed itself and aimed directly at Tony. “Woah! That’s not me! I can’t move, the suit’s compromised. Get outta here, go!” He warned as the drones also aimed at Tony. 

The crowd started to run, with Blaine’s encouragement, as Tony flew into the sky. The drones immediately started firing after him, shattering the glass ceiling. Blaine ran into the fleeing crowd, trying his best to keep them from getting hit by the falling glass shards and earned himself a series of cuts through the suit. He looked back at the stage just in time to see Rhodey involuntarily, followed by a dozen drones, chasing after Tony, the remaining drones stepped down from the stage and walked slowly towards the running crowd. Blaine spotted Pepper and Natasha and made a b-line for them. 

“Miss Potts, you gotta get somewhere safe.” Blaine said formally and with a deepened voice so as to keep his identity from Natasha. 

“What’s happening?”

“Vanko, from Monaco, he’s taken control of the suits. Best guess is he’s working with Hammer and played him to get revenge on Tony.”

“We’ll find Hammer and get him to tell us where Vanko is.” Natasha said quickly. 

“Be safe.” Blaine ran behind them where two drones where bearing down on three civilians, he used his momentum to charge into one, knocking it over with a crash that caused its ‘head’ to snap off and sparks fly out as it powered down. Spotting the weakness, he climbed on the others back and used all his strength to snap the other’s head off as well before jumping off and landed next to the civilians. 

“Are you guys alright?” They nodded as he helped them to their feet. “Okay, stick together and be safe.” Blaine watched for a couple of seconds as they hurried to safety, as he was watching he saw someone standing still and staring back at him, drones approached from each side. He ran and pulled him from the path of the drones just as the four collided and were momentarily incapacitated. Blaine froze, “Wes?”

The older boy pulled Blaine into a hug and squeezed tightly. “I thought you were dead.”

“I’m not, I’m here.” Blaine returned the hug. “I’m okay now.”

“You mean you really were dying?”

“Yes. But that’s a story for another day, right now I need you to help me okay?”

Wes nodded. 

“Find a fire alarm, we need to evacuate all buildings. If a drone gets in one without us noticing then a lot of people are gonna get hurt. After that I want you to help them get out, keep them moving, I’m sure you get the idea. But most importantly keep yourself safe, hide if you have to, I’ll come find you. Can you do that.”

“Yeah, of course.” Wes agreed. Blaine handed him an earpiece. 

“Here, so you can talk to me. It only connects to my suit not Tony’s. See you soon.”

Wes put in the ear piece and hurried to the closest pavilion. Blaine turned his attention back to the drones which were currently marching towards him and waved for Wes to go. He quickly defeated the four drones, watching their corpses as he caught his breath.

“Tony, how’s it going your end?”

“Not great, Jarvis is trying to get back control of Rhodey’s suit, in the meantime, I'm trying to take out the drones chasing us.” As if on cue Tony flew over Blaine’s head then doubled back causing two unmanned drones to collide, Blaine saw them fall and tracked their path to the ground, clearing the area of civilians.

“If you could try to not drop them on people, please.” Blaine could almost hear Tony’s eye roll as he disassembled yet another drone.

“How about you?” 

“So far so good, but there’s a lot of people and a lot of drones.” 

“Hang on kid. I’ve got a plan.” Blaine watched Tony fly towards the centre piece of the expo, a hollow globe where only the countries were represented by metal plates. Tony expertly flew from plate to plate, each time turning just in time to avoid crashing but the drones weren’t as agile and each one collided with a plate in a firey explosion. 

“Rhodey, what’s your twenty?” Before he could reply Rhodey tackled Tony mid air, sending them crashing through a glass dome and into the grassy landscape below. Blaine could hear them fighting as he continued to take out the seemingly never ending stream of drones. 

Suddenly the comms fell silent.

“Tony?” Blaine tried to contain his panic. “What happened?”

“I rebooted Colonel Rhodes’ suit.” Came Natasha’s voice through comms.

“Thank you Agent Romanoff.” Tony said.

“You’ve got incoming Tony. Looks like the fight is coming to you.” 

Blaine ran to join Tony who was helping Rhodey to his feet, “You okay Colonel Rhodes?”

“Could be worse. Looks like it’s us three against an army.”

_ We could really use a Hulk right about now  _ Blaine thought to himself. “We’ve got this, we’ll be the Triforce.” Two blank faces stared back at him. “No one?” Tony shook his head.

“They’re here.” Rhodey said looking to the sky. Drone after drone landed around them, each one clunking loudly as it hit the ground.

“You weren’t kidding when you said there’s a lot.” Tony mused. Both men dropped the faceplates of their suits and the drones erupted to life, charging forward firing weapons and missiles. The trio stood in a circle, back to back, Tony firing repulsor cannons from his palms, quickly taking down the closest drones while Rhodey used the full firepower of his modified suit to focus on longer range.

“Aim for their heads, it’s their weak spot!” Blaine guided as he took off, knowing Tony had the short range covered he ran further back and started climbing onto the drones so he could reach, and eventually twist off, the heads, leaving a trail of sparking corpses in his wake. All around them drones exploded, setting fire to the trees and shrubbery surrounding them. 

“Get down!” Tony shouted, both others immediately followed the instruction. Tony charged up two lasers and span in a circle, cutting through the remaining drones which collapsed helplessly to the floor.

“I think you should lead with that next time.” Rhodey said as Blaine rejoined them.

“Sorry man I can only use it once, it’s a one off.”

“Head’s up, you’ve got one more drone incoming.” Natasha warned.

“Looks like we unlocked the boss fight.” Blaine said, “But I can’t be here.”

“No, you gotta get a safe distance away and stay there. No matter what, we’ve got this one handled.” The tone in his father’s voice let Blaine know he really meant it.

“See you on the other side.” Blaine ran to the edge of the area they were in, he was far enough away so that his lightning wouldn’t cause another explosion but insisted he remained close enough to see the fight. Seconds later Vanko landed in an improved version of his exoskeleton, still armed with the electrics whips. Tony and Rhodey launched into battle, firing everything they had but barely seemed to make a dent in Vanko’s armor. 

A crackling sound over his comms made Blaine jump. He quickly turned off the comms that spoke to Tony and the others.

“Blaine?” Wes’ voice was shaky with fear.

“Are you okay?”

“I- I think so. I was making sure everybody was out of this building and then one of the drones came in and I’ve been hiding ever since. I could hear it walking around but then there was a noise a few seconds ago like it collapsed and it’s been silent since.” Wes whispered.

“Hey, you’re okay. Stay where you are for now just to be safe. Tony and Rhodey are fighting Vanko outside so just stay there. I’ll come and find you soon.” When Blaine turned back to the fight Vanko had both pinned to the spot by his weapons, one out to either side of him. Having a sudden spark of inspiration he turned the comms back on. “Do the Harry Potter spell thing!”

Tony immediately held out his hand, Rhodey quickly caught on and both fired their repulsors. When the beams connected they created a ball of energy directly in front of Vanko, it exploded with such energy that all three were sent flying and even Blaine stumbled backwards as the glass dome shattered around him.

The trio returned to the centre, all mostly unharmed. They turned their attention to Vanko who was unmoving but still gripping to life. “You lose.” He choked out. The reactor piece of his suit started to flash red and beep loudly, followed by all the corpses of drones.

“They’re rigged to blow we gotta get out of here man.” Rhodey was already preparing to take off.

“Pepper!” Tony shouted, also taking off and flying her direction.

_ Wes!  _ Blaine thought. He quickly switched comms again. “Wes what building?”

“There was a massive red sign on the front, far in the corner. I’m under a desk in the corner. Blaine it’s beeping.”

“I know, I’m coming.” Blaine knew which building Wes meant, the one that was furthest from his current position. He ran as fast as he could, some of the drones were already exploding as he passed. He reached the building and followed Wes’ instructions to his hiding spot, the drone had exploded and it was all Blaine could do to stop a metal strip from the wall from crushing the desk Wes was under. He collapsed to his knees, holding the metal as the building crashed around them blocking them in place, muscles straining with the effort. Both had their eyes screwed shut until the sounds of collapsed quieted to a dull creak as things settled.

“Wes…” Blaine said, his voice weak. “Can you see a way out?”

“No. I think there was a drone outside that wall, it collapsed inwards.”

“Yeah I realised.” Blaine laughed once but had to focus his energy.

“How do we get out.”

“We could wait for Tony.”

“No you can’t.”

“No.” Blaine agreed. 

“At least, we’re together.” 

“No, don’t speak like that just…” Blaine thought hard, trying to find a way to save them as his arms burned. “I’ve got it. Remember that idea you had? Let’s try it, hold on to me tight and don’t let go.” Wes followed the instruction, wrapping his arms around Blaine’s waist.

Blaine took a deep breath and vibrated his and Wes’ bodies, faster until he moved at the same frequency as the natural vibrations of particles of the rubble, the metal sheet fell straight through them, as did everything that fell on top. Slowly and carefully Blaine took Wes’ hand, ensuring there was always at least on point of contact, and the pair stepped out of the rubble together. When they were clear Blaine stopped and checked Wes was okay, thankfully he was unhurt bar a few cuts. He looked up to see Tony, Pepper, and Rhodey standing in front of them, it was clear they had been searching for Blaine.

“Neat trick you got there.” Tony said, keeping his voice fairly impassive so as not to cause suspicion.

“He came up with it.” Blaine smiled at Wes.

“I’m glad everyone’s okay, but there will definitely be a SHIELD debriefing.” Natasha said.

Tony rolled his eyes then made eye contact with Blaine, a meaningful look,  _ I’m glad too. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's probably going to be one/two more chapters for this part as we're so close to finishing Iron Man 2. Of course more will follow after that...


	17. Debriefing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the intense fight against Vanko the group head back to the Tower but their relaxation is cut short by an unsuspected visit by Agent Romanov.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's here, the last chapter of part 2! Hope you enjoy reading and thanks so much for sticking around this long!

Blaine had taken Wes back to Stark Tower, Tony and Rhodey arrived shortly after, then Happy arrived with Pepper. The group were sitting round the fireplace in the main living room, taking in the welcome calmness that came with it.

 “Natasha Romanov just entered the lift, Sir.” Jarvis said.

 “I was enjoying the piece.” Tony sighed. “Wes, you should go up to Blaine’s room for a bit, you’ll find it easily. Blaine put your suit back on.”

Blaine smiled to Wes as he went for the stairs then pulled on his suit. Moments later the lift doors opened with a gentle ding and Natasha stepped out, dressed in an all black fight suit equipped with a holstered gun. “You guys look cosy.”

“We were.” Tony deadpanned back.

“I won’t stay long.” She turned to Blaine, “I’m Agent Romanov, there’s been a lot of talk about you at SHIELD. It’s good to finally meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too, I just wish the circumstances were different.”

Natasha nodded. “That brings me to why I’m here. You’ll both be meeting with Director Fury for your debriefing, Colonel Rhodes your debriefing will with me.”

“That’s a pretty big name for a simple debriefing.” Tony said cautiously.

“I believe he has something further he wants to discuss. You’ll be contacted and given a time and location for the meeting soon, but for now I’ll let you enjoy the rest of the night.” She entered the lift and everyone except Blaine offered a quick goodbye, instead he ran in just as the doors shut. Natasha barely flinched at the sudden appearance.

“Hi. Sorry, I just wanted to thank you. You know, for saving Colonel Rhodes. I don’t want to think what would have happened if they had to fight properly.”

“It’s no problem, really. It’s actually my job.”

Blaine smiled. “What’s it like? I mean doing this as a job, at SHIELD?”

“What I do at SHIELD and what you do out there are very different. Fury always says it’s a big world and we don’t know it yet, I think you’re going to like what he has to say.”

Natasha left Blaine with a thousand more questions than when he started as the doors opened at the bottom, she smirked as she stepped out. “I look forward to working with you in the future.” She walked away without looking back, leaving Blaine in stunned silence.

He rushed back up, heading straight for his room where Wes was sitting awkwardly on the corner of his bed. He let out a yelp as Blaine appeared in front of him. “Sorry! I didn’t think, sorry.”

“Don’t worry.” Wes laughed, he pointed to Blaine’s overflowing bookshelf. “I couldn’t help but notice you like to read.”

Blaine glanced at the shelf full of biographies of Captain America, Bruce Banner, and Howard Stark, as well as journals detailing cutting edge experiments on the top half and a vast collection of fiction books on the bottom, including a well loved set of Harry Potter. “I have a lot of down time.” Blaine defended.

“You? Down time? I don’t think I’ve ever seen to stop working.” Wes laughed.

“Hey, time for me goes a lot slower. I can do more in a second then most people can in an hour, including reading every single one of those books.” Blaine flopped down on his bed, yawning loudly. “Man I’m so tired, I’m not sure when I last slept.” Wes gave him a confused glance. “Been busy the last few days, going through Grandpa’s top secret work, rediscovering then creating a brand new element, fighting off an evil robot army.” 

“Wait- You what?”

It was Blaine’s turn to laugh, “I’ll explain properly in the morning, right now I _really_ need to sleep. I’m assuming you’re staying the night?”

“I hadn’t thought about it…”

“Well I did, the room next to mine is a spare bedroom.” He dug through one of his drawers. “Here, these pyjamas are too big for me so hopefully they’ll fit you fine. There’s an en suite with toothbrush and everything you could need.”

Wes took the clothes, trying to hide the shocked expression on his face. “Oh! Thanks Blaine. Goodnight.”

“Night Wes.” Blaine pulled off his suit and lazily changed into pyjamas, he waited a couple of minutes to make sure Wes was settled and wouldn’t need anything else before crawling gratefully under the covers, falling asleep almost instantly.

 

* * *

 

Wes gently knocked on Blaine’s door, he heard rustling from inside and eventually and fuzzy answer. 

“Wes? That you?”

He cracked the door open slowly and sidestepped in, Blaine rubbed his eyes having clearly just woken up and shuffled to sitting position. “I was just wondering… Were you going to go to school today? I know a lot has happened but everyone’s worried about you and I lost my phone somewhere in the commotion yesterday so I haven’t been able to let them know you’re okay.”

Blaine checked the clock on his bedside table, 8:47, he rushed to his feet. “I left my phone in Malibu. C’mon, if we hurry we can get there before lessons start.” 

“I’ve got a suitcase of stuff in a hotel near the Expo where I was supposed to stay.” 

“Okay, we’ll go there first. You ready?” 

Wes nodded, Blaine ran them to the hotel Wes had indicated then on to Dalton. The pair, both still wearing pyjamas, ran round the corner and up the front stairs. They received confused looks by most students as they ran towards the choir room where the Warblers often gathered in the morning. They burst through the doors, gaining the undivided attention of everyone inside. Wes stopped, catching his breath in the doorway, while Blaine ran straight into Kurt’s arms, lifting the older boy off the floor in his embrace.

“I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry Kurt.” Blaine kissed his cheek and apologised more while Kurt stared back in shock. 

“Blaine?” He asked.

“It’s me Kurt, I’m here and I’m fine and I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have told you to leave when you were only trying to help.”

Kurt finally returned the embrace, “It’s okay, I’m just glad you're here.” Both boys had tears in their eyes.

“Ahem.” Said Nick, breaking the silence of the rest of the group and catching Blaine’s attention, he looked around the rest of the Warblers all beaming back at him. “What the hell happened?”

As soon as Nick asked everyone in the room started asking similar questions until Wes managed to quiet them down to let Blaine speak. 

“I guess you all heard..?” Everyone nodded. “Well, long story short… yes, I was dying. No, I’m not dying anymore, we fixed the problem and now I’m better than ever.” 

The Warblers cheered. “Who was that guy who came here?” One asked.

“An old acquaintance.” Blaine thought revealing the existence of a secret organisation as well as an agent who works there would get him in Nick Fury’s bad books.

“What was wrong with you?” Everyone went dead silent at the question.

Blaine looked at Kurt, he didn’t know about the attack and what it did to Blaine, at the same time Blaine owed an answer to the others.

“Basically, the core of the arc reactors were made from palladium which was slowly poisoning us and we couldn’t find a replacement for a long time, we have now though and it’s completely harmless.”

“Arc reactor, like Tony Stark?” Kurt asked, clearly confused.

“Can we have the room for a minute?” The other Warbler’s filed out, leaving Blaine to explain everything. Well, everything accept his true relation to Tony Stark and his secret identity, scared his insane life would cause him to lose Kurt.

“I- I can’t believe that happened to you.” Kurt said hugging him.

“It was Karofsky, he changed his name and moved to your school. Clearly didn’t change his ways in the process.” Kurt stared in stunned silence. “It’s okay now though.”

“It’s never okay, what happened- what he did to you is horrific.” At that moment the bell rang to start the day’s lessons. “I guess we should go.”

“I guess so.” Blaine pressed a kiss to Kurt’s lips before they walked hand in hand to their lessons.

 

* * *

 

The debriefing was held in a run down basement, at least it was run down from the outside but when Blaine entered he was met with a short staircase down ending with a heavy duty door and two SHIELD agents guarding it. As Blaine, in his suit, carefully descended the door swung open and Tony left with a smirk on his face, he clapped Blaine on the shoulder as they passed on the stairs. Blaine gave both agents a cautious look but neither stopped him from entering. 

Inside was a table and two chairs, illuminated in a beam of light from a high up window, a series of holographic screens displaying information Blaine didn’t know what to make off, and various boxes scattered around in the dark corners.

“Hello Flash, unless there’s something else I can call you?” Nick Fury said as he walked into the light. Blaine nodded a greeting but didn’t offer the information Fury clearly wanted, Fury indicated on of the chairs and walked to the other but made a point of waiting for Blaine to sit before he did so himself. On the table were four files, turned over so Blaine couldn’t see their names.

“I was going to say I like this meeting for than the burning building but it’s getting a bit creepy.” Blaine said to break the silence of Fury’s intense stare.

“You’ve been spending too long with Stark.” Fury replied, “You’re starting to take after him.”

“I don’t think that’s as bad as you’re making it out to be.”

Fury flipped over one of the files, it read _Tony Stark Personal Assessment_ in bold. “This suggests a few reasons otherwise.” He quickly rifled through the handful of pages inside before flipping over a second file reading _‘The Flash’ Personal Assessment._ “See if you can spot the difference.” Fury opened the file to reveal a single sheet of paper, an official SHIELD document, the only filled out category was _Codename: The Flash_ while others such as _Birthdate_ and _Name_ were left blank. 

Fury slid a pen across the table. “We don’t know anything about you, I don’t like that. Romanov said you wanted to know what working at SHIELD is like and I’m offering you that chance.” He indicated the final line on the document, _Recruitment Assessment for Avengers Initiative_. 

Blaine stared at the line, his thoughts racing. _If I join the Initiative I can keep people safe from threats I can’t even fathom. Did Dad? He’d be angry if I do this, he’ll get over it. This is my chance to really help I can’t turn it down, can I? Should I? I’d have to reveal myself to SHIELD, that would really anger Dad. Why can’t SHIELD know who I am? Cause if it gets out my life will explode, same for the Warblers. And Wes, and god Kurt would feel so betrayed._

“I can’t.” Blaine blurted out. He hated how childish his voice sounded, Fury seemed to notice it too.

“You’re young, this is big, I understand that. But I can’t recommend you when I know nothing about you.”

Blaine stood. “Then know this; I will always fight for good and I’ll do everything I can to keep this planet safe. If something happens and you need me, I’ll be there.” He walked purposefully from the building and waited for the door to click shut behind him. “I hope I made the right decision.”

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Blaine answered the phone, fear building inside. “Hello.”

“Flash.” Fury said, shouting and explosions sounded in the background. “Mojave Desert, Granite Peak. Now!” The call cut off abruptly, Blaine didn’t waste a second, he arrived on the scene moments later. In front of him was a crater where an impressive building must have once stood, now reduced to burning rubble. Behind him, a crashed helicopter on its side, the crackle of fire from inside, and beyond that stood Nick Fury speaking into a walkie talkie. Blaine only caught the end of the conversation.

“As of night now, we are at war.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it for part 2! I'll be getting to work on a third part right away but don't expect an update all that soon as there's a lot of planning to get done first, that said it is on the way.  
> Thanks for the kudos and comments!!


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